252 
BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH. 
with black; the hairs that cover the nostrils are of a pale 
cream colour ; the bill, deep slate. But what forms the most 
distinguishing peculiarity of this bird, is a fine line of vermi- 
lion on each side of the head, seldom occupying more than the 
edge of a single feather. The female is destitute of this 
ornament ; but, in the rest of her plumage, differs in nothing 
from the male. The iris of the eye, in both, was hazel. 
The stomachs of all those I opened were filled with small 
black insects, and fragments of large beetles. The posterior 
extremities of the tongue reached nearly to the base of the 
upper mandible. 
BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH SITTA PUSILLA. 
Plate XV. Fig. 2. 
Small Nuthatch, Catesby, Car. i. 22, upper figure. — La petite sitelle a tete brune, 
Buff. v. 474 Beale’s Museum , No. 2040 Briss. iii. 958 Bath. i. 651, C. 
SITTA P USILLA. — Latham. 
Sitta pusilla, Bonap. Synop. p. 97. 
This bird is chiefly an inhabitant of Virginia and the 
southern states, and seems particularly fond of pine trees. I 
have never yet discovered it either in Pennsylvania or any of 
the regions north of this. Its manners are very similar to those 
of the Red-bellied Nuthatch, represented in Plate II. ; but 
its notes are more shrill and chirping. In the countries it 
inhabits it is a constant resident; and in winter associates 
with parties, of eight or ten, of its own species, who hunt 
busily from tree to tree, keeping up a perpetual screeping. It 
is a frequent companion of the Woodpecker figured beside it; 
and you rarely find the one in the woods without observing or 
hearing the other not far off. It climbs equally in every 
direction, on the smaller branches as well as on the body of 
the tree, in search of its favourite food, small insects and their 
larvae. It also feeds on the seeds of the pine tree. I have 
never met with its nest. 
