224 A PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



Food. — Chiefly hazel nuts in autumn, also beech-mast, acorns, 

 seeds of yew, Portugal laurel, etc. Also insects ; coleoptera, 

 orthoptera, diptera, hemiptera, larvse of gall insects. Spiders and 

 small mollusca also recorded. 



Distribution. — Confined to Great Britahi. Resident. Tolerably 

 common south and central England, rarer west Cornwall and Wales, 

 and very rare western Wales, though in recent years becoming 

 established in Carnarvonshire, and twice recorded from Anglesey. 

 In Isle of Wight iniknowii. Very local Cheshire and Yorks., north 

 of which coimties only a straggler, but has occasionally bred. In 

 Scotland has occurred three or four times in south-east (said to have 

 bred near Ednam (Roxburgh) about 1850), two were seen Skye, 

 and is said to have occurred in Shetlands. In Ireland one seen 

 Malahide (Dublin), March 26, 1911, was no doubt introduced (c/. 

 Brit. B., v, pp. 28 and 229). 



Represented by S. e. europcea in Scandinavia, north Russia, 

 and Denmark, and by other forms in other parts of Europe, also in 

 west Asia (south to south-west Persia) and north Asia as far east as 

 Japan and Kamtschatka. 



Family PARID^. 



Small ten-primaried Oscines with the bill shorter than head 

 and wing rounded. Nostrils small, roundish, more or less concealed 

 by antrorse short feathers. Rictal bristles not verj^ conspicuous, 

 but generally present, though sometimes obsolete. Wings long, 

 rounded, 3rd to 6th, 3rd to otli, or 4th to 6th primaries longest, 

 flrst half as long as second or less, sometimes rudimentary. Tail 

 of twelve rectrices, variable in length and shape. Tarsus longer 

 than middle toe with claw, scutellate or " booted." Plumage 

 soft and copious. Northern hemisphere in general, Indo-Malayan, 

 Australian, New Zealand and Ethiopian regions, in South America 

 the genus Polioptila, which is now generally considered to belong here. 



Key to genera of family Parid.^. 



J Nostrils covered by single stiff tiny feather . . Begulus, p. 2.')0 

 ^ 1 Nostrils covered by antrorse bristles . . 2 



t laii sngnny roiinaea or emarginate, not strongly 



2-| graduated Parus, p. 225 



\ Tail strongly graduated 3 



i Under tail-coverts half as long as longest tail- 

 feathers Panurtis, p. 256 

 Under tail-coverts much less than half as long as 

 longest tail-feathers ^githalos, p. 246 



