120 THE WORLD'S BIRDS. 



that country, and often imported to Europe, though as 

 a rule Tits do not do well in captivity and are seldom 

 kept an3rwhere. The most familiar Tit in North America 

 is the Chickdalee (Parus atricapillus) , which is a very 

 much enlarged edition of our Marsh Tit. 



The little long-tailed Tits, typified by our species 

 [Acredula caudata), are more purely insectivorous and 

 less familiar birds; but the Red-crowned Tit {A. 

 ioschistus) is a familiar bird in parts of the Himalayas ; 

 it has a shorter tail than our bird, and is grey above, 

 with chestnut cap. 



Troupials, or Hang-Nests {Icterince), are an exclu- 

 sively American sub-family, but they are much better 

 represented than the Tanagers in the northern half of 

 the continent, where some species are among the 

 most familiar birds, often called, from their dark or 

 yellow-pied plumage, "Blackbirds," or "Orioles," 

 although they are by no means nearly related to those 

 birds. Some are as big as cro^^'s, and they are usually 

 larger than sparrows ; their beak is noticeably conical, 

 but varies much in length and thickness, some having it 

 as stout as a sparrow's, like the " Bobolink " {Dolichonyx 

 oryzivoms), and others as thin as a starling's, such as 

 the Meadow-Lark (Sturnella ludoviciana) . The beak 

 has a marked tendency to run up on the forehead, and 

 the feet are strong, like a Starling's, which these birds 

 much resemble in many ways ; but they use the foot 

 to hold down food, unlike those birds. They are social, 

 but spiteful in disposition. The food is both vegetable 

 and animal, and the nest varies. In America these 

 birds seem to represent the Starlings and Weavers of 

 the Old World, and perhaps unite those groups. 



The Bobolink, which is about as large as a lark, 

 and coloured much like one in the female sex, and in 

 the case of the male out of the breeding season, is black- 

 and-white in nuptial dress ; but no other species ex- 

 hibits such a change. This is a very familiar bird in 



