GREAT TIT. 467 
night ; and many dash against our lighthouses, attracted possibly by the 
glare of the lamps. 
The Great Tit has the forehead, crown, sides of the neck, and throat 
rich glossy black with a steel-blue lustre ; the cheeks, ear-coverts, and a 
small patch on the nape are white; the upper back is yellowish green, 
gradually merging into bluish grey on the lower back and upper tail-coverts. 
The wing-coverts are pale blue, the greater ones tipped with white, forming 
a bar across the wing ; the primaries are dark brown, margined with greyish 
white on the terminal half, and slate-grey on the basal half; the secon- 
daries are margined on the basal half of the outer web with yellow, whiter 
on the terminal half; the tail is dull black washed with bluish grey, the 
outside feather on each side white on the outer web and also on the inner 
web at the tip; the next feather tipped with white. The underparts below 
the throat are bright greenish yellow, with a broad black line from the black 
on the throat down to the vent; the under tail-coverts are white varied 
with black. Bull black ; legs and feet lead-grey ; irides dark brown. The 
female very closely resembles the male in colour, but is not quite so bril- 
liant, and the black line on the underparts is not so broad. Young birds 
are duller in colour than their parents, and the white parts are yellowish. 
The Great Tit may be distinguished from all the other British species by 
its size (wing 2°9 inch), and by the broad streak of black on the underparts 
from the chin to the vent. 
2H 2 
