LONG-TAILED TITMOUSE. 179 



with pale yellowish gray. Under parts tinged 

 with yellowish brown on the vent and flanks. 



The five birds, which we have just described, 

 are all true part, or typical to the characters 

 given to the genus. The next which we have to 

 notice, the 



LONG-TAILED TITMOUSE PARUS (MECIS- 

 TURA) CAUDATUS. Parus caudatus. Will. 

 Linn. P. longicaudatus, Briss. Mecistura 

 Vagans, Leach. La Mesanye a longw queue, 

 Buff. Temm. Long-tailed Titmouse of British 

 authors. Varies in some of its proportions, and 

 in some parts of its manners, and by Dr Leach 

 was removed from the others, under the generic 

 title Mecistura) which, by some of our modern 

 ornithologists, has been retained as a sub-genus. 

 Mr Swainson, on the contrary, considers that this 

 bird, and the next, are only the representing 

 forms of the different types, and that they should 

 not be separated. It is curious, that in these 

 aberrant forms one species only in each has 

 yet been discovered. The principal differences 

 in the form of the Long-tailed Titmouse, and 

 which strike the observer at first sight, are the 

 lengthened form produced by the long graduated 

 tail, resembling that of a magpie, or some of 

 the longer tailed shrikes, and the very short bill, 

 concealed almost by the thick downy feathers of 

 the forehead. In their nidification also, they 



