258 



ON THE PLUMAGE, NEST, AND EGGS OF THE LONG- 

 TAILED TITMOUSE (PARUS CAUDATUS.) 



In all the best, or at least most modern works upon Ornitholog-y 

 with which I am acquainted, — those of Mons. Temminck, of 

 Selby, Fleming, Mudie, and Alphabet Rennie, to wit, — there are 

 sundry grave and flagrant errors in the portraiture of that elegant 

 and notable little bird, vulgarly 'yclept the bottle-tit, of which I, 

 albeit naturally very shy, and quite a novice in the business of 

 writing, have long been plucking up courage to essay the correc- 

 tion. The head of the little creature in question, is described, 

 by all these learned scribes, as ivhite : Temminck even has it, 

 mire-white ; and the back and scapulars (Selby, " Illustrations of 

 British Ornithology," page 234 ; Fleming, " History of British 

 Animals," p. 81 ; and Mudie, "British Naturalist," vol. ii. p. 3 17) 

 rose-red. Now to my sober, and mayhap vulgar, organs of sight, 

 nothing can be more like unto gray, than the hue of the former ; 

 nothing more nearly akin to pale-chesnut, than that of the latter. 

 With laudable pains-taking to get at the truth, I have examined 

 divers specimens from diverse parts of the country (two are, at 

 this moment, on the table before me) ; and asked the opinions 

 of sundry persons more knowing than myself in these matters. 

 The response has invariably been, " grey and pale-chesnut, 

 beyond all contradiction, as j)lain as the nose in one's face." 



Now for the nest. Selby, in speaking of this most curious and 

 wonderful structure, says that " a small hole is left on tivo 

 opposite sides of the nest, not only for ingress and egress, but 

 also to prevent the bird, during incubation, from being incom- 

 moded by its long tail, which then projects through one of the 

 orifices." " Illustrations," p. 234 : and Fleming (page already 

 quoted j, and Mudie, likewise, testify as to the existence of two 

 openings in the nest of the bottle-tit. 



In my younger days, when my optics were more prying, and, 

 alas! a great deal keener-sighted than they now are, and even 

 "within the few years last past, have I repeatedly scrutinized the 

 '* domed nest," as Rennie has it, of the long-tailed architect; yet 

 never, for the life of me, could I descry any trace of the postern 

 vent, or tail-hole, with which these good-natured and cunning 

 men have, in their wisdom, so providently furnished it. 



And, in good truth, one cannot help being a trifle sceptical, or 

 so, as to the main use which Selby and copyists knowingly 

 assign to said vent-hole, even if, in reality, it existed. When the 

 ordinary distance of such orifice from the bottom of the nest is 

 duly scanned, one cannot but surmize that little Mistress bottle- 

 tit, with her tail-piece sticking out of the attic window, and her 

 head and body in the ground-floor of the tenement, would have, 

 during her long lying-in, rather a sorry time of it. I'he truth 

 of the matter is, I opine, nothing more nor less than this : when 



