CAROLINA NUTHATCH. 
199 
the two middle feathers the longest, the others^on each 
side shortening, by one sixth of an inch, to the outer 
one ; the wing consists of nineteen feathers, the first an 
inch long, the fourth and fifth the longest, of a deep 
brownish black, and crossed about its middle with a 
curving band of rufous white, a quarter of an inch in 
breadth, marking ten of the quills ; below this the 
quills are exteriorly edged, to within a little of their 
tips, with rufous white, and tipt with white ; the three 
secondaries next the body are dusky white on their 
inner webs, tipt on the exterior margin with white, 
and, above that, alternately streaked laterally with 
black and dull white ; the greater and lesser wing- 
coverts are exteriorly tipt with white ; the upper part 
of the exterior edges of the former, rufous white ; the 
line over the eye, and whole lower parts, are white, a 
little brownish towards the vent, but, on the chin and 
throat, pure, silky, and glistening ; the white curves 
inwards about the middle of the neck ; the bill is half 
an inch long, slender, compressed sidewise, bending 
downwards, tapering to a point, dusky above, and white 
below ; the nostrils are oblong, half covered with a 
convex membrane, and without hairs or small feathers ; 
the inside of the mouth is reddish ; the tongue tapering 
gradually to a point, and horny towards the tip ; the 
eye is dark hazel; the legs and feet, a dirty clay 
colour ; the toes, placed three before and one behind, 
the two outer ones connected with the middle one to 
the first joint; the claws rather paler, large, almost 
semicircular, and extremely sharp pointed ; the hind 
claw the largest. 
GENUS XXVII. — SITTA, Linnjsus. 
147 . SITTA CARO LINEN SIS) BRISS. LINN. AND WILS. 
WHITE-BREASTED BLACK-CAPT NUTHATCH, OR CAROLINA 
NUTHATCH. 
WILSON, PLATE II. FIG. III. 
The bill of this bird is black, the upper mandible 
straight, the lower one rounded upwards, towards the 
