LONG-TAILED TIT. 845 



characters, and the reasons which induced so excellent a 

 zoologist to make the separation in this instance, as well as in 

 many others, at least as far as I am aware, were never pub- 

 lished. Other naturalists appear to coincide with Dr. Leach 

 in the propriety of this division. M. Brehm, in his work on 

 the Birds of Germany, published in 1831, considers the 

 Long-tailed Tit entitled to generic distinction, and has used 

 the term Paroides for it, apparently unaware of the name 

 previously given by Dr. Leach. The Prince of Musignano, 

 also, in his recently published " Comparative List of the 

 Birds of Europe and North America," adopts for the Long- 

 tailed Tit the generic term Mecisttira. 



The most obvious differences, and those which probably 

 induced the original separation, may be briefly stated. The 

 five species which have already been described here, have 

 short tails, almost even, or square, at the end, the feathers 

 being nearly of uniform length ; legs, toes, and claws, rather 

 short and strong ; their nests are loosely put together, gene- 

 rally placed in holes in walls or trees, and the birds are 

 almost omnivorous in reference to food. The Long- tailed 

 Tit, on the contrary, as its name implies, has the tail long 

 and graduated ; three pair of the tail-feathers not only dif- 

 fering from each other in length, but all of them also shorter 

 than the other three pair ; the legs and toes rather long and 

 slender ; the nest of the most perfect kind, oval in shape, 

 domed at the top, with a small hole at the upper part of one 

 side by which access is gained to the chamber within ; the 

 nest is generally fixed in the midst of a thick bush ; the bird 

 is more decidedly insectivorous, and some other differences in 

 habits are observable. As, however, the genus Mecistura of 

 Dr. Leach has not been adopted by either of the authors 

 whose more recent ornithological works are referred to and 

 quoted at the head of each separate subject here, I have in- 

 cluded the Long-tailed Tit in the genus Parus, but I may at 



