520 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
had rubbed off on the trees. They worked rapidly, their nest being 
four inches long one day and eight the next, arched over at the top, 
with the entrance framed in, though it was still so filmy that the body 
of the worker could be seen inside. Examined closely it was found to 
be made mostly of wool with small woolly leaves and oak tassels inter¬ 
woven. In an old nest of a related Bush-Tit found in a live oak in 
southern California, I once counted over three hundred tiny feathers 
in addition to a mass of fine gray moss and oak blossoms (1902a, p. 
461). When encountered in the field, as Mr. Bailey says, “the old 
birds, gray mites that they are, make frantic efforts to drive away 
intruders, either from the nest or from their families of young as they 
are led about in the bushes” (1928a, p. 160). 
Additional Literature.—Finley, W. L., American Birds, 105-111, 1907; 
Condor, VII, 91-95, 1905 (young); Educational Leaflet 40, Nat. Assoc. Audubon 
Soc — Grinnell, Joseph, Condor, V, 85-87, 1903 (call notes). 
LLOYD BUSH-TIT: Psaltriparus melandtis 116ydi Sennett 
Description. — Length: Adult male (skin) about 4 inches, wing 1.9-2, tail 
2.1-2.2, bill .3; tarsus .6. Female about the same. Adult male: Toy of head slate 
gray, cheeks and narrow nuchal collar , black (glossy greenish); rest of upperparts 
plain deep olive-gray; wings and tail smoke or mouse-gray with pale edgings; chin 
black, median underparts white, sides washed with grayish brown; thighs and under 
tail coverts bufTy whitish; iris pale yellowish. Adidl female: Similar, but black of 
sides of head usually partly or wholly replaced by brown, and underparts dull 
buffy. 
Range. —Mainly in Upper Sonoran Zone of southeastern desert region from 
southeastern Arizona, southern New Mexico, and western Texas (mountains be¬ 
tween the Pecos and Rio Grande rivers) south into Chihuahua and Sonora. 
State Records. —A full plumaged adult male was taken in the San Luis Moun¬ 
tains, July 19, 1892 (Mearns), and is now in the collection of the United States 
National Museum. The species probably occurs at other places in southern New 
Mexico, but the difficulty of distinguishing between the females and young of this 
form and plumbeus prevents a certain identification of other specimens in the collec¬ 
tion that probably belong to this species.—\V. W. Cooke. 
NUTHATCHES: Family Sittidae 
Subfamily Sittinae 
While tree trunk creepers, the Nuthatches, unlike the closely 
related Brown Creepers, habitually walk head down or climb around 
without help from the short soft tail, “the 
whole tarsus being often applied to the 
support.” Well adapted to their life, their 
plumage is compact, their bodies flattened, 
their tails and legs short, and their toes 
all long, with large, much curved, com¬ 
pressed claws. Their bills are strong, com¬ 
pressed, nearly straight, their tongues 
Fig. 91. Nuthatch (Sitta carolin^ 
ensis carolinensis) 
