Our figure is from a specimen brought from Demerara by C. Edmonston, Esq.; another is in the possession of A. MacLeay, Esq. Though rare in our cabinets, M. Le Vaillant says it is common in Cayenne. He has given a beautiful figure of the female, which is entirely green.
Total length six inches. Plumage above entirely green, beneath paler and inclining to yellow; just under the lower mandible is a small snuff-coloured spot, and a very narrow line of the same in front just above the nostrils; the quills dark-green, the greater ones on their outside base are blue, with which the head is also tinged. The spurious wings are entirely of a rich and clear orange. Inner wing-covers green. Quills inside greenish-blue, except on each side the shafts, where there is a line of black. Tail short, cuneated, hardly projecting an inch beyond the wings, both above and below green: the interior margin dirty-yellow, the feathers pointed. Bill and legs flesh-colour.
SITTA frontalis.
Blue Nuthatch.
Generic Character.
Rostrum rectissimum, acutum, compressum; utroque mandibulo ad apicem æque inclinato; apice integro cuneo compresso simili. Nares basales, ovales, apertæ, plumis setaceis incumbentibus extrinsecus tectæ. Pedes tribus digitis anticis; uno postico; digitus interior minimus; exterior ad basin medio connexus; hallux productus validus. Ungues compressissimi; antici subæquales; posticus maximus. Cauda brevis, rectricibus duodecim subæqualibus.