Family —S ITTID^E. 
Genus— NEOSITTA. 
Neositta Hellmayr, Journ. fiir Orn., 1901, p. 187, 
April number. New name for Sittella 
Swainson. Type (by monotypy) .. .. Sitta chrysoptera Latham. 
Sittella Swainson, Classif. Birds, Vol. II., p. 317, 
July 1st, 1837 (ex Ency. Geogr. Murray, p. 1484, 
July, 1834, nom. mid.). Type (by monotypy) Sitta chrysoptera Latham. 
Not— 
Sittella Rafinesque, Analyse Nature, p. 68, 1815. 
Small “ Nuthatches ” with long thin bills, long wings, short square tail and 
short legs and large feet. 
The bill is long and thin, about as long as the head, laterally compressed, 
slight basal expansion, culmen nearly straight with a slight upward tendency 
anteriorly, the tip sharp and semi-hooked with a posterior notch more noticeable 
in juvenile birds; the nostrils are linear, strongly operculate, placed basally 
in a nasal groove which is only about one-fourth the length of the bill; the 
under mandible is similarly narrow, the interramal space small, triangular, 
feathered, only extending about one-fourth the length of the bill, the gonys 
with an upward tendency; though very narrow neither upper mandible nor 
gonys show any keeling; rictal and nasal bristles present, but weak and 
insignificant. 
The wing is long with the first primary very small, the second longest, 
the third, fourth and fifth little less, and the succeeding ones rapidly 
decreasing in length to the medium secondaries. 
The tail is short and square, less than half the length of the wing. 
The legs are short, the tarsus strongly scutellate in front, about half a 
dozen scutes being counted, and bilaminate posteriorly. 
The anterior toes are weak, the hind-toe and claw long and stout and 
almost equal to the tarsus in length ; the hind-toe is longer than the middle 
toe, the hind-claw stout, the anterior claws small and delicate, the outer toe 
longer than the inner, the latter with its claw about equalling the middle toe 
alone. 
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