PARUS NIGER. 331 
whitish, extending from the white ear-coverts down to the breast, 
the centre of the abdomen, thighs and under tail-coverts ashy 
whitish: under wing-coverts whitish, the quills below brown with 
whitish edgings along the inner web: “ bill klack: feet. lead-colour : 
iris dark hazel” (Buckley). Totallength, 5°5 inches; culmen, 0°5 ; 
wing, 3°15; tail, 2-4; tarsus, 0°5. 
Young.—Ashy brown where the adult is blue-grey, the wings and 
tail brown, the white edgings only slightly developed: crown of 
head brownish black: sides of face and sides of neck dull whitish, 
the sides of the body light ashy brown, paler in the centre of the 
abdomen : throat and chest dull black. 
Fig. Le Vail. Ois. d’Afr. pls. 138, 139, fig. 2. 
317. Parus NIGER. Southern Black-and-White Titmouse. 
Parus leucopterus, Layard, B. §. Afr. p. 113 (nec Swains.). 
Le Vaillant found this species in the eastern districts of the colony. 
We have received it from Beaufort, Kuruman, and met with it our- 
selves near Grahamstown. Mr. Rickard has procured it on one 
occasion near Hast London and Mr. T. C. Atmore records it as not 
very uncommon in the neighbourhood of Eland’s Post. Captain 
Shelley procured specimens both at Durban and Pinetown in Natal, 
and Mr. Thomas Ayres writes :—-“ I have discovered a nest of these 
birds containing one egg and four callow young. The old bird had 
evidently taken possession of a deserted Woodpecker’s nest. The 
hole was in a perpendicular and decayed bough of a large tree, about 
twenty feet from the ground; it was about a foot in depth, and 
there was a very little fine grass at the bottom, on which the ege 
and young birds were placed. I was obliged to cut and break the 
front of the bough to get at the contents of the nest; and the old 
birds showed their dislike to my proceedings by their chattering 
cries and uneasy manner. On leaving the nest I repaired the hole 
as well as I could, and left the little ones safe inside; but passing 
the place in about a week, I again climbed the tree and found the 
nest cold and deserted.” Mr. T. E. Buckley, during his journey 
into the Matabili country, shot a male bird in Bamangwato on the 
18th of October, 1873. Mr. Andersson observes :— This Tit is to 
be met with, though more sparingly than P. afer, in Damara Land 
and in the neighbourhood of the Okavango River and of Lake 
N’gami : it is, however, more frequent in the last two districts than 
