LONG-TAILED TITMOUSE. I45 



of the family, and it frequently climbs on the trunks like a 

 Creeper. The food is animal or vegetable, and it often 

 searches the young shoots for the small pests which infest 

 conifers in spring and summer. 



The nest is in a hole in a trunk or stump, and seldom far 

 above the ground, and the nesting materials are of the usual 

 felted type, but in Scotland often include the hair of red 

 deer, the fur of variable hare and the feathers of Grouse or 

 Ptarmigan. The eggs, four to eight as a rule, are laid in May ; 

 they vary considerably, but are often more boldly and densely 

 blotched than those of many tits, and these blotches are 

 frequently very dark red (Plate 58). 



The upper parts are huffish brown, darker on the wings and 

 tail ; the under shade from dull white to light brown. The 

 head is crowned by the crest in which the black feathers have 

 white margins, giving it a speckled appearance in front but 

 streaked towards the nape, where the feathers are elongated 

 and pointed. From the eye to the nape a black line runs lo 

 join another which curves round the white cheeks ; below this, 

 but separated from it by a white band, is a black collar, forming 

 in front a gorget and extending to the chin. The bill is black, 

 the legs lead-blue, and the irides brown. Length, 4*5 ins. 

 Wing, 2'5 ins. Tarsus, 75 in. 



Long-tailed Titmouse. .EgHhalus catidahis (Linn.). 



In the Long-tailed Tits racial differences are so marked that 

 many who object to trinomials have segregated species, and 

 Blyth in 1836 called our bird Mecistiira rosea. Of the many 

 Palasarciic forms, most readily distinguished when adult, two 

 are on the British list, the resident ^. c. rosea (Blyth) (Plate 53 

 on right), and the White-headed ^. c, caiidatits (Linn.) 

 (Plate 53 on left) of northern Europe and Asia. The west 

 central European bird closely resembles ours, and where ranges 



Series I. L 



