of the common Bottletit. 203 



the older individuals are the first to feel the influence of the 

 vernal season ; and accordingly, therefore, the old bottletits are 

 found to pair, and leave their progeny, some weeks before the 

 latter cease to be gregarious; and have thus often completed the 

 laborious work of nidification before the younger ones com- 

 mence. This is not mere supposition ; for, as a bird of this 

 species that has moulted twice is easily distinguishable from a 

 younger individual by its superior beauty, and especially by 

 having a larger patch of roseate upon thescapulary feathers, I 

 have been enabled to ascertain the fact by snooting a few de- 

 tached pairs of them in early spring, whilst the younger indi- 

 viduals were still in society. This is, indeed, the most advisable 

 method of procuring handsome specimens for the museum ; 

 and it consequently follows that, when the Mecistura pairs, it 

 must do so for life. There is no difference in the plumage of 

 the sexes, save that the males have generally somewhat less 

 black about the head. According to Temminck, the head of 

 the male is wholly white ; and I am told that this is the case 

 with all the specimens obtained about Paris. It is therefore 

 possible that there may be two closely allied species.* Certain 

 it is that, out of the great numbers that I have examined in 

 England, I have met with only one, a male, in which the black 

 markings on the head were nearly obsolete. Of its nidification 

 it would be superfluous to say anything, further than that I have 

 never seen a nest with two openings, out of many dozens of 

 them that I have examined. It may be remarked, however, 

 that it is entirely constructed by the female bird, while the 

 materials of which it is composed are wholly collected by the 

 male ; a fact on which I am enabled to speak quite positively, 

 having paid particular attention to the subject. I once found 

 one wholly lined with the feathers of a cock pheasant; and 

 have seen another beautifully placed amid the thickly blos- 

 somed twigs of a wild crab. 



I have said that in this bird the sexes are much alike ; but 

 the young, in their first or nestling garb, are extremely different. 

 I am aware of no author who has described them in this state 

 of plumage. Mr. Jenyns says, " The young birds have the 

 white parts more or less mottled with brown and dusky ; and 

 the black on the back not so deep and well defined ;" which 

 is apparently a translation from Temminck f, and does not 



* I have not seen a Continental specimen ; but there are one or two 

 particulars in Mr. Temminck' s description which rather lead me to suspect 

 that this is the case. 



f Les jeunes ont de petites taches noires sur les joues, et des taches 

 brunes sur la poitrine : le noir du dos n'est point aussi decide. (Manuel 

 d'Ornithologie, torn. i. p. 297.) 



U 2 



