440 



PAllUS ATER. THE COAL TIT. 



COAL TITMOUSE. 



Fig. 183. 



Parus ater. Linn. Syst. Nat. I. 341. 



Parus ater. Lath. Ind. Orn. TL 564. 



Cole Titmouse. Mont. Orn. Diet. 



M^sange petite cliarbonniere. Parus ater. Temra. Man. d'Orn. I. 288. 



Cole Titmouse. Parus ater. Selb. Illustr. I. 239. 



Parus ater. Cole Titmouse. Jen. Brit. Vert. An. 123. 



The head and neck glossy bluish-hlack^ with a broad patch of 

 white on the cheek and side of the neck^ and a large spot on the 

 nape ; hack grey, breast white^ hind 'parts brownish-yellow ; two 

 white bars on the icing. 



Male. — The Coal Tit is the smallest British species of the 

 genus, and indeed the least of our native birds excepting the 

 Mufflin, the Kinglets, and the Creeper. In form it is so very 

 similar to the Blue Tit and other species, as to render a minute 

 description unnecessary. The bill is longer and more slender 

 than that of the Blue Tit, and although more resembling that 

 of the Great Tit, proportionally narrower. The upper man- 

 dible is internally concave, but flattened, with a central pro- 

 minent line, which is also seen in the lower. The tongue is 

 nearly linear, thinnish, short, subsagittate at the base, abrupt 

 at the end, with four terminal bristles, the two middle ones 

 longer. The oesophagus, Plate XIII. Fig. 12, abed, is an 



