of the common Bottletit. 207 



months, and at length died, when it had nearly finished 

 moulting. It is worthy of remark, that this individual would 

 hardly ever touch meat, of which all the rest were extremely 

 fond. To this, possibly, may be attributed its comparative 

 longevity. It principally fed on bread and milk, and upon 

 crumbled bread and bruised hempseed ; would sometimes just 

 taste a little fruit, but did not eat it, like the tits ; and it was 

 at all times extremely active and lively, and, out of its cage, 

 troublesomely tame. 



I am unaware that this species had been ever previously 

 kept in confinement ; for which reason I have described it 

 somewhat minutely, as observed in the cage : the more parti- 

 cularly, as the individuals which are captured old will never 

 live ; and there are few who will take the trouble of rearing 

 them from the nest. The bearded reedling (Calamophilus 

 biarmicus) is also extremely apt to go off suddenly, when 

 apparently in a state of perfect health ; and the same may be 

 noticed, though less frequently, in the true Pari. I do not 

 consider, however, that there is much affinity between the 

 Calamophilus and Mecistura, the former being a very peculiar 

 genus, to which I am unaware of a single form that is nearly 

 allied. 



It may be added, that the bottletit progresses by hopping, 

 like the tits ; whereas the bearded reedling advances by 

 alternate motion of the feet. Towards the last-mentioned 

 species there are some very remarkable approximations among 

 the shrikes, of which the Lanius erythronotus may be cited 

 as an example. The bill of the Calamophilus is a true bruis- 

 ing or compressing instrument; and its large craw and very 

 muscular gizzard separate it widely from those birds with 

 which it has been commonly associated. In its stomach and 

 craw I have generally found reed seeds, the remains of small 

 beetles, and, not unfrequently, shelled Mollusca, of a size 

 which I should have thought it impossible for the bird to 

 swallow. I have often fed it with small snails in confine- 

 ment. 



It will be noticed that the general character of the plumage 

 and markings are quite different in the genera Parus, Mecistura, 

 and Calamophilus. In the penduline, which has also been 

 recently very properly separated, it is diverse again ; and I 

 think it may be asserted that all the characters of these four 

 divisions, so commonly still confused under the name Parus, 

 are decidedly more distinct than those of several genera of 

 the Fringillidae, and various other groups, which have been 

 almost universally accepted. Why naturalists should be so 



q 4 



