LONG-TAILED TIT. 347 



died up, like a shapeless lump of feathers only. These birds 

 have several notes, on the sound of which they assemble and 

 keep together ; one of these call-notes is soft and scarcely 

 audible ; a second is a louder chirp or twitter, and a third is 

 of a hoarser kind. 



The Long-tailed Tit is a common bird in the southern and 

 western counties of England from Sussex to Cornwall. Mr. 

 Eyton includes it in his Catalogue of the Birds of Shropshire 

 and North Wales ; and Mr. W. Thompson says it is dif- 

 fused in Ireland through the wooded districts of the north 

 particularly, but not in great numbers. It is found also in 

 all the counties north of London, from Middlesex to North- 

 umberland ; and Mr. Macgillivray mentions its occurrence in 

 the vicinity of Edinburgh. It is resident all the year in 

 Sweden ; and inhabiting Siberia and Russia, is spread south- 

 ward over the whole European continent even to Italy, where 

 it is also common, and resident all the year. It is observed 

 to be particularly abundant in Holland ; and M. Temminck 

 includes it in his Catalogue of the Birds of Japan. 



The beak is black ; the irides hazel ; the top of the head, 

 nape, and cheeks, greyish white ; over the eye, and descend- 

 ing from thence over the ear-coverts, is a black stripe, narrow, 

 and sometimes said to be entirely wanting in old males, but 

 broader in females ; on the upper part of the back a trian- 

 gular patch of black, one point of wliich is directed down- 

 wards ; the shoulders, scapularies, and part of the rump, 

 tinged with rose red ; wing-coverts black ; wing-primaries 

 greyish black ; the tertials broadly edged with white ; upper 

 tail-coverts black ; the three pair of central tail-feathers very 

 long and black ; the next three pair each half an inch shorter 

 than the feather on the same side which precedes it, and all 

 six are black on the inner web, and white on the outer ; the 

 whole of the under surface of the body greyish white ; the 

 sides, flanks, and under tail-coverts, tinged with rose colour ; 



