36 
WHITE-BREASTED, BLACK-CAPPED NUTHATCH. 
Not only the plumage of the robin, as of many other birds, 
is subject to slight periodical changes of colour, but even the 
legs, feet, and bill ; the latter, in the male, being frequently 
found tipt and ridged for half its length with black. In the 
depth of winter, their plumage is generally best ; at which 
time the full grown bird, in his most perfect dress, appears as 
exhibited in the plate. 
WHITE-BREASTED, BLACK-CAPPED NUTHATCH 
SITTA CAROLINENSIS Plate II. Fig. 3. 
Catesb. i. 22. fig. 2. — Lath. i. 650. B. — -Briss. iii. p. 596. 4. — Sitta Carolinensis, 
Turton. — Sitta Europea, Gray Black-capped Nuthatch, Bartram, p. 289. — 
Beale's Museum , No. 20, 36. 
SITTA CAROLINENSIS.* 
Sitta Carolinensis, Bonap. Synop. 96 Sitta melanocephala, Vieill. Gal. des Ois. 
p. 280, pi. 174. 
The bill of this bird is black, the upper mandible straight, 
the lower one rounded upwards towards the point, and white 
near the base; the nostrils are covered with long curving 
* The true nuthatches, Sitta, (for I would not admit S. velata of Horsfield, 
and some allied species, nor the S. chrysoptera from New Holland,) are all 
natives of Europe and South America. With this restriction of geographical 
distribution, the genus will contain only four species, three of which, S. 
Carolinensis, Canadensis, and pusilla, figured and described by our author, are 
confined to North America ; and the fourth, S. Europea, has been only found 
in Europe. With regard to their situation in our systems, I would prefer placing 
them near to Certhia, Neops, Andbates, Dendrocolaptes, and not far distant from 
the titmice ; with the former, they seem intimately connected, and there appears 
little in their structure in common with the woodpeckers, except the act of 
running up the trunks of trees. In habit and general economy they resemble the 
titmice, always actively employed in turning or twisting round the branches, or 
in running up or down the trunks, for they do both with equal facility, searching 
after the insects, or their eggs and larvse, which lie concealed under the moss, 
or loose bark ; but occasionally also, like them, feeding upon different grains 
on the seeds of the pine cones, as mentioned by our author, in his description 
of the red-bellied species ; or, according to Montagu, like the S. Europea 
frequenting the orchards during the cider season, and picking the seeds 
