BOTRYCERAS BOTTLE-TIT. 



This was accomplished by placing all that had 

 leaves in one class called FOLIACH^:, and all leaf- 

 less cellulares in another which the author called 

 APHYLL.*:. 



That Jussieu has chosen for marks of distinction 

 those particulars of structure and exterior conforma- 

 tion which are the least liable to variation is perfectly 

 true ; and perhaps no plan could be hit upon that 

 would better distinguish the principal features of vege- 

 tation. This is so far well, because it enables the 

 student to group plants with comparative ease, and 

 which alone is a great advantage. At this point 

 many amateur botanists may be disposed to stop, 

 because in proceeding to be able to identify species, 

 or even genera, is much more laborious, and requires 

 a greater share of practical knowledge than Linnaean 

 botany ; and this very circumstance will probably keep 

 the latter system longer in the schools than it would 

 otherwise be. 



BOTRYCERAS (Willdenow). An evergreen 

 shrub from New Holland, resembling a laurel, and 

 in the natural order Proteacece. 



BOTTLE GOURD. Is the Lagcnaria vulgaris 

 of Scringe. This with several varieties obtained 

 from it, are cultivated in the East Indies, their native 

 habitat. They are annuals, and cultivated in this 

 country for the curious form and colours of their 

 fruit. 



BOTTLE-TIT or LONG - TAILED TIT- 

 MOUSE (ragans, Leach; Pants caudatus, and 

 Longicaitdatus, auctorum). A very curious little bird, 

 frequenting low wooded situations in all parts of 

 Europe ; very plentifully in Holland, and abundant 

 and pretty generally distributed over Britain. It is 

 a very small species, not exceeding in size and weight 

 the common wren, but is much longer in the tail, and 

 in structure nearly resembles some of the titmice 

 (Parus], in which genus it has been commonly 

 arranged. 



The bill is black and very short, but appears more 

 so in the adult bird, from its base being hidden in the 

 feathers, which project forwards and conceal the nos- 

 trils, and are generally half erected on the head, of a 

 more arcuated form than in the titmice, the upper 

 mandible slightly curving over the under. Irides, in 

 the adults, dark reddish hazel ; bare skin around the 

 eye, orange yellow ; the forehead and crown of the 

 head are white ; from near the bill, passing over the 

 eyes, are two streaks of black, which join at the napo 

 of the neck, forming a broad streak which runs down 

 the middle of the back ; scapulars, which, in the birds 

 that have moulted twice, form on each side a large 

 broad spot, roseate; in the younger individuals there 

 is less of this colour, and the spot is but ill defined. The 

 quills black; secondaries deeply edged with a whitish 

 colour. The under parts also are whitish, with i: 

 line of dusky spots across the breast, and are tinge . 

 about the flanks with rosy red. The tail is \cr\ 

 long and wedge-shaped, except that the two middle 

 feathers are shorter and sometimes narrower than the 

 two next, which latter are, in the adult, longest of 

 all, those on each side being successively shorter 

 arid shorter. Legs and toes blackish, rather more 

 slender than in the titmice, with the claws very 

 pointed and sharp, and the grasp of the foot amazingly 

 strong. 



The sexes in this bird are much alike, but the 

 young in their first or nestling plumage are very 

 different. In these the two mandibles of the bill are 



fill 



of equal length, black, excepting the tip of the upper, 

 which is whitish, where, in about six weeks, it grown 

 and curves over the under. The bill also appears 

 considerably larger than in the old bird, from its base 

 not being concealed in the plumage. The irides are 

 at first dark greyish, like those of a young cuckoo; 

 in the course of two or three weeks becoming much 

 paler and brighter, and more inclining to blue ; then 

 gradually darkening, till in eight or ten weeks, they 

 assimilate to the colour of the pupil, so as only to be 

 distinguished when examined closely. The colour 

 of the bare skin around the eye at first is brick red, 

 afterwards becoming very bright and conspicuous 

 about the time the irides are darkest, the upper part 

 changing to orange-yellow in the autumn, the under 

 not till late in the following spring. Crown of the 

 head (a much larger portion ot it than in the adult), 

 together with the whole under parts and some of the 

 lower scapulars, pure white, without a tinge of roseate, 

 but appearing on the flanks greyish, or intermixed 

 with black, the feathers of these parts being thin and 

 puffy, and showing much of their blackish inner por- 

 tions. Ear-coverts, which in the aduTts are whitish 

 with a few dusky spots, black ; line over the eye and 

 the whole upper paits also black, the few white sca- 

 pulars forming merely a narrow white line. The 

 wings and tail marked as in the adult, but more indis- 

 tinctly, the black being everywhere more dusky than 

 in the old bird. 



The tail also of the young bottle-tit in its nestling 

 plumage is considerably longer than that of the adult, 

 the two feathers next the middle measuring three 

 inches seven-tenths ; those next again measuring 

 about a tenth more ; the middle ones wanting a tenth 

 of three inches, being a mere trifle longer than the 

 fifth. In the adult bird the proportions are, middle 

 feathers the same as in the young; the two next, 

 which are longest, only one-fifth of an inch more, the 

 longest feather being thus seven tenths shorter than 

 ZZ2 



