A History of North American Birds, Land Birds. Volume 1. Robert Ridgway
and continued to breed until the middle of July. Two fifths of all the eggs he collected that season, he writes, were of this species. This may, however, have been in part owing to the conspicuous prominence of their nests, as well as to their abundance. Xantus found the nest in various positions. In one instance it was suspended from a leafless branch not three feet from the ground, with its entrance nearly to the ground. In another instance it was on an acacia twenty feet from the ground. For the most part they are hung from low acacia-trees, on the extreme outer branches. In all cases the entrance to the nest was from the lower end, or towards the ground.
Dr. J. G. Cooper, in his History of the Birds of California, speaks of finding a large number of this beautiful little bird during the whole winter frequenting the thickets of algarobia and other shrubs, and with habits intermediate between those of Titmice and Warblers, corresponding with their intermediate form. Their song resembles that of the Chickadee, and they also uttered a loud cry, as they sat on high twigs, with a triple lisping note resembling tzee-tee-tee. Dr. Cooper found a pair building on the 10th of March. They first formed a wall, nearly spherical in outline, of the thorny twigs of the algarobia, in which tree the nest was usually built. They then lined it with softer twigs, leaves, the down of plants, and feathers. They covered the outside with thorns, until it became a mass as large as a man’s head, or nine inches by five and a half on the outside. The cavity is four and a half inches by two, with an opening on one side just large enough for the bird to enter. On the 27th of March, Dr. Cooper found the first nest containing eggs. These were in all instances four in number, pale blue, with numerous small brown spots, chiefly near the larger end, though some had very few spots and were paler. Their size he gives as .60 by .44 of an inch. In one nest, which he closely observed, the eggs were hatched after about ten days’ incubation, and in two weeks more the young were ready to leave their nest.
Subfamily SITTINÆ
The characters of the Sittinæ are expressed with sufficient detail on page 86. The section is represented in America by a single genus, confined mainly to the northern portion.
Sitta, Linnæus, Syst. Nat. 1735. (Agassiz.)
Sitta carolinensis.
1761 ♀
Gen. Char. Bill subulate, acutely pointed, compressed, about as long as the head; culmen and commissure nearly straight; gonys convex and ascending; nostrils covered by a tuft of bristles directed forward. Tarsi stout, scutellate, about equal to the middle toe, much shorter than the hinder, the claw of which is half the total length. Outer lateral toe much longer than inner, and nearly equal to the middle. Tail very short, broad, and nearly even; the feathers soft and truncate. Wings reaching nearly to the end of the tail, long and acute, the first primary one third of (or less) the third, or longest. Iris brown. Nest in holes of trees. Eggs white, spotted with reddish.
The North American species may be arranged as follows:—
A. Crown black.
S. carolinensis. Belly white; no black stripe through eye.
Bill, .70 long, .17 deep. Black spots on tertials sharply defined. Hab. Eastern Province North America … var. carolinensis.
Bill, .80 long, .14 deep. Black spots on tertials obsolete. Hab. Middle and Western Province United States, south to Cordova, Mexico … var. aculeata.
S. canadensis. Belly brownish-rusty. A black stripe through eye. Hab. Whole of North America.
B. Crown not black.
S. pusilla. Crown light hair-brown; hind toe much longer than the middle one. Hab. South Atlantic and Gulf States.
S. pygmæa. Crown greenish-plumbeous; hind toe about equal to middle one. Hab. Western and Middle Province United States, south to Xalapa.
Sitta europæa, var. γ, carolinensis, Gm. S. N. I, 1788, 440. Sitta carolinensis, Lath. Ind. Orn. I, 1790, 262; also of all other American writers.—Reichenbach, Handbuch, Abh. II,, 1853, 153, tab. dxiii, figs. 3563, 3564.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 374, pl. xxxiii, fig. 4; Review, 86.—Max. Cab. Jour. VI, 1858, 106. Sitta melanocephala, Vieill. Gal. I, 1834, 171, pl. clxxi.
Other figures: Wilson, Am. Orn. I, pl. ii, fig. 3.—Aud. Orn. Biog. II, pl. clii.—Ib. B. A. IV, pl. ccxlvii.
PLATE VIII.
1. Sitta carolinensis, Gm. ♂ Pa., 59324.
2. Sitta carolinensis, Gm. ♀
3. Salpinctes obsoletus, Say. Cal., 7157.
4. Catherpes mexicanus, Sw., var. Mex., 53425.
5. Campylorhynchus brunneicapillus, Lafr. ♂ Cal., 7149
6. Campylorhynchus affinis, Xantus. ♂ Cape St. Lucas, 12965
7. Sitta canadensis, Linn. ♂ Pa., 818
8. Sitta canadensis, Linn. ♀ Pa., 2073.
9. Sitta pusilla, Lath. Ga., 1925.
10. Sitta pygmæa, Vig. Cal., 3342.
11. Certhia americana, Bon. ♂ Pa., 827.
Sp. Char. Above ashy-blue. Top of head and neck black. Under parts and sides of head to a short distance above the eye white. Under tail-coverts and tibial feathers brown; concealed primaries white. Bill stout. Female with black of head glossed with ashy. Length about 6 inches; wing about 3.75.
Hab. United States and British Provinces; west to the Valley of the Missouri.
Sitta aculeata.
Habits. The common White-bellied Nuthatch has an extended distribution throughout nearly the whole of Eastern North America, from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains. West of the great central plains it is replaced by the var. aculeata. It has not been met with, so far as I am aware, farther north than Nova Scotia. It is a resident of Eastern Maine, and is quite common in the southern and western portions of the same State. In Massachusetts it is rather common than abundant, and more plentiful in the western than in the eastern portions of that State.
The habits of this and the other species of Nuthatches partake somewhat of those of the smaller Woodpeckers and of the Titmice. Without the noisy and restless activity of the latter, they seek their food in a similar manner, and not unfrequently do so in their company, moving up or down the trunks and over or under the branches of trees, searching