X 48 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



tail -coverts deeper and more chestnut ; under wing-coverts and 

 quill-lining white ; bill, black ; feet, dark brown ; iris, hazel ; 

 eyelids red. Total length, 5-5 inches; oilmen, 0-3; wing, 

 2*45; tail, 3-2 ; tarsus, 0*65. 



Adult Female. Similar to the male. Total length, 5-2 inches ; 

 wing, 2-35. 



Young. Differs from the adult in being duller, blackish-brown 

 where the adult is black, and not having any of the rosy colour 

 on the back and under-parts. 



Range in Great Britain Generally distributed over the three 

 kingdoms, becoming rarer in the north of Scotland, but not 

 yet recorded from the Outer Hebrides, and apparently not 

 known in the Orkney and the Shetland Isles. In the latter 

 Dr. Saxby once observed a party of four Long-tailed Tits 

 in Unst, in April, 1860, but whether they were the British 

 form, ^. vagans, or the Continental ^. caudatus^ was not 

 decided. 



Habits. No more restless little birds exist, and to a casual 

 observer they might well appear to be " here to-day, and gone 

 to-morrow." Although to a certain extent they are the com- 

 panions of the winter assemblages of Tits, Goldcrests, and 

 Nuthatches, which are seen in the woods, they more often con- 

 stitute little flocks of their own, consisting doubtless of the old 

 birds and their progeny, which is numerous enough to enable a 

 single family to make quite a respectable appearance as regards 

 numbers. The note of the Long-tailed Tit is unmistakable, 

 for besides the zi-zi utterance, which seems to be characteristic of 

 all Tits, it has a kind of " churring " note peculiar to itself. Al- 

 though they frequent the tops of trees in pursuit of their insect 

 food, they are as frequently found far away from the woods, in 

 hedgerows and scattered bushes, where the parties keep well 

 together, and when the leader flies off to another feeding 

 ground, the rest follow him in line, with a rapid and undulating 

 flight. They build one of the most extraordinary and beauti- 

 ful nests in the world, a domed structure of soft moss, with a 

 hole in the side near the top, and some naturalists have stated 

 that there is. a second entrance to this remarkable structure 

 which the little creatures build. This we have not verified 

 from personal experience, but we have seen the two parent 



