PASSERES. 



COAL-TITMOUSE 



489 



PARIDuE. 



Parus ater, LiniiaBus*. 



THE COAL- TITMOUSE. 



Parus ater. 



The Coal-Titmouse or Coal-Mouse, to use its earliest 

 English name!, is almost as generally distributed in this 



" Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p 341 (1766). 



t So Merrett, in 1667 (Pinax Reruin Naturaliuiu Britannicarum, p. 178), 

 called this bird, latinizing its name Oarbonariua. The French Charbonnicrc, 

 applied to this as well as to the Great Titmouse, equally shews the meaning of 

 the word which most later authors have spelt "Cole" ; Init as it has clearly 

 nothing to do with cole, the plant (as found in co/ewort and co/cseed), and we 

 have long given up spelling the name of the fuel we burn otherwise than "coal ", 

 it is wrong to keep " Cole " as the distinguishing prefix of this Titmouse. It 

 may be urged that the Germans set us the example, writing Kohl-Meise and not 

 KoJdc-Meise ; but here the e is doubtless dropped by way of abbreviation or 

 euphony. It may also be remarked that the second syllable of the word "Tit- 



VOL. T. 3 I^ 



