534 



BLUE- CAP. 



grey. The two middle tail-feathers brown, the re- 

 mainder having their basal half of a bright ferruginous, 

 or brownish orange colour. In the female the upper 

 parts are paler, the chin pale azure blue, mixed with 

 black, streak on each side of the neck, and upper 

 part of the breast, blaCk, intermixed with azure blue, 

 and surrounding a large spot of white. The young 

 are in their first plumage mottled. 



This is a handsome and rather interesting bird, 

 somewhat intermediate in character between the red- 

 start, and the pipit and wagtail group ; and also having 

 some affinity lor the fan-tail flycatchers of America 

 (genus Sctophaga, Swammerdam), from which it chiefly 

 differs in the make of the bill. 



It is a restless, active species, but its habits are 

 very retired and shy ; and as it runs upon the ground, 

 or along the branch- of a tree, it very frequently spreads 

 its tail open wide, a habit in accordance with the 

 transatlantic birds above-mentioned, the more charac- 

 teristic species of which (as the S. ruticilla), have the 

 tail exactly similar in form and colour. Like those 

 birds, also, and the redstarts of the old continent, the 

 blue-breast often captures insects on the wing, darting 

 after them like the various species of flycatcher. 



It is a migratory bird, chiefly inhabiting in summer 

 the more northern countries of Europe, being rare in 

 Germany, France, and Holland. Its haunts are in 

 the forests, where, like the redstarts, it is said to build 

 in the holes of decayed trees and to lay five or six 

 eggs of a pea-green colour. Its notes are, we believe, 

 very simple ; and we are unaware of its possessing 

 any proper song. Its food consists of insects and 

 their larvse, and earth-worms ; and in confinement it 

 soon becomes familiar, and is tolerably hardy, much 

 more so than the different PhcenicuraE. With these 

 last birds it has been very generally classed, but as 

 we are sure such an arrangement would never be fol- 

 lowed by those who have ever seen it alive, we have 

 thought it best to make it here constitute a separate 

 division ; considering that, in the feathered creation 

 especially, the associating in the same minimum group 

 species which are not very closely similar, tends, in 

 some measure to retard, rather than to advance, the 

 progress of the science, the habits and manners of 

 little known species being commonly and very natu- 

 rally inferred, from a knowledge of those of the other 

 species with which they have been grouped : nor is 

 this remark altogether confined to such as are little 

 known ; the peculiarities of the bearded reed-bird 

 (Calamnphttus biarmicuii) have been overlooked by 

 most writers who have described it ; and this merely, 

 perhaps, because having been placed by Linnaeus and 

 most subsequent writers in the genus Parus, it has 

 been commonly taken for granted that its general 

 characters were similar to those of the other tits ; and 

 the same applies also to the bottletit, or long-tailed 

 titmouse (see BOTTLETIT), a species very common in 

 the British islands. So long, therefore, as the Swedish 

 Ian-tail continues classed in Phcenicura, its general 

 characters will be presumed to be similar to those of 

 the other redstarts, which latter, if kept only within 

 due restrictions, form an extremely natural and well 

 marked division. On this account, we have affixed 

 the generic name PandicUla to this species, a term 

 expressive of its almost constant habit of horizontally 

 spreading open the tail. 



The fan-tail, or blue-breast, as we have already 

 remarked, becomes soon confiding and familiar in 

 captivity ; and after moulting in the cage, the blue 



colour on the breast is always much duller than in the 

 wild birds. These feathers are in winter fringed with 

 whitish tips, wjiich gradually wear oft' in the spring. 

 In this country, it can only be considered as a very 

 rare straggler, the above-mentioned being the only 

 recorded instance of its occurrence ; yet it is not 

 improbable that some may be often compelled by 

 adverse winds to take shelter on the British shores, 

 when attempting to cross from the southernmost point 

 of Norway : the disappearance of birds of passage in 

 the autumn being, in many species, extremely gradual, 

 and often continuing for a number of successive 

 weeks. 



BLUE-CAP, BLUE TITMOUSE, or TOM- 

 TIT (Pants caruleus). This common little bird 

 would be greatly admired for its beauty, were it only 

 a little less abundant, its plumage when clean being 

 a most delicate admixture of soft and pleasing co- 

 lours. The forehead, a large triangular patch on each 

 side of the neck, and a line over the eye, which is 

 continued round the back of the head, white. A line 

 of blackish blue commences on each side of the base 

 of the bill, passes through the eyes immediately under 

 the white band, and also meets behind, then de- 

 scending and forming a broad band, surrounds the 

 triangular patch of white, meets in front, and is con- 

 tinued up to the chin ; imparting a sort of harnessed 

 appearance to the bird. Under this, on the lower part 

 of the back of the neck, is another broad spot of white. 

 Crown of the head, wings, and tail, pale blue ; the 

 scapulars and greater wing-coverts tipped with white, 

 the latter forming a white band across the wing. The 

 back of a light greyish green, and the whole under 

 parts sulphur yellow, with an ill defined blackish line 

 along the middle of the belly, legs and toes bluish 

 grey. The female differs only in being rather less 

 bright in colour, and in the young the crown of the 

 head is blackish brown. 



In this titmouse the bill is shorter and thicker than 

 in the more characteristic species of Parus, and the 

 bird consequently exhibits some slight modification of 

 habit. It is very rarely seen to hammer seeds i the 

 manner of the others, nor does it often hold its food 

 with both feet like the rest, but most commonly with 

 one foot. In confinement, the others will entirely 

 subsist on hempseed. which they hold firm between 

 both feet, whilst they pierce a small hole in the husk 

 with repeated knocks of the bill, through which they 

 extract the kernel ; but we have never observed the 

 blue tit to hammer seeds in this manner, and though 

 fond of hempseed, it will not, at least in confinement, 

 ever touch it unless it finds some already cracked. 

 The minutest characteristics are, in natural history, 

 often quite worthy of attention, as they sometimes 

 throw considerable light on the habits of an animal. 



As restricted to the different species which nidifi- 

 cate in holes, the genus Parus forms an extremely 

 natural and well marked division, the more charac- 

 teristic species of which exhibit a marked resemblance 

 to the jays (genus Garru/tts) in very many parti- 

 culars. Their general form and structure, and the 

 loose, pretty texture of their plumage (the webs of 

 the feathers being discomposed), their soft and sub- 

 dued colours, their omnivorous appetites and hardy 

 constitution, together with their general manners, 

 their harsh chattering notes of alarm, the remarkable 

 degree of cunning and sagacity which thev evince, 

 and their habit of constantly placing the foot upon 

 their food whilst picking it to pieces, and of concealing 



