BIRDS — PARIDAE — PARUS. 



387 



black frontal band, too, bave a few of tbese short, pale, ashy white tips. The posterior elongated 

 feathers of the crown and the short feathers of the occiput are black. The lateral feathers 

 behind, however, are white, in continuation of the streak over the eye. In most specimens the 

 black crescentic line behind the eye is much broken by white. There does not appear to be 

 any rusty tinge on the sides, as in L. bicolor. 



The black post-auricular crescent is bordered behind by white, running into a whitish collar 

 just behind the black of the throat. The nape below the crest is black, this dividing and 

 passing around the upper half of the neck as a half collar posterior to the white. 



The bill is very short and conical. The second primary quill is longer than the secondaries ; 

 the third is intermediate between the eighth and ninth. 



The upper parts are of much the same tinge of olivaceous as in L. inornatus. 



The young birds differ in having the black less intense, especially on the throat. 



Poor specimens have a slight resemblance to Parus montanus. This, however, lacks the 

 crest ; the forehead is white, not black ; the middle of the crown is black, not ash colored ; the 

 white of the cheeks is not bordered behind by a black crescent, connecting the stripe behind the 

 eye with the throat. 



This species is much more like the European L. cristatus than any other American titmouse. 

 It differs in the much stouter bill, absence of rufous on the sides, more black on the throat, the 

 feathers of the crown ash, like the back, instead of being black, edged with whitish. The 

 black crescent behind the eye runs into the black of the throat, instead of stopping in the white 

 cheeks. The posterior cervical half collar of black is cut off from that of the throat, instead of 

 being continuous with it. The resemblance of the two species would be much strengthened if 

 the posterior black collar were made to run into the neck, and the crescent on the cheeks inter- 

 rupted below. 



Cabanis, in Mus. Heineanum, places this species in the same genus with the typical L. 

 cristatus, and separates the L. bicolor, as type of a new genus, on account of the stouter bill, 

 difference in character of crest, longer wings, &c. The other American crested titmice, how- 

 ever, exhibit a very gentle gradation between the two, while the bill of L. wollweberi is even 

 stouter in proportion than in L. bicolor. 



List of specimens. 



PaRUS, Linnaeus. 



Parus, Linnaeus, Syst. Nat. 1735. (Agassiz.) Type P. major. 



Ch — Head not crested. Body and head stout. Tail moderately long, and slightly rounded. Bill conical, not very stout ; 

 the upper and under outlines very gently and slightly convex. Tarsus but little longer than middle toe. Crown and throat 

 generally black. 



