i5 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



Young Duller than the adults, and wanting the rose-colour, 

 the entire back being black, and the under-parts ashy-white; 

 on each side of the crown a dusky band. 



Range in Great Britain. Purely an accidental visitor from the 

 Continent. More than one example has been said to have been 

 seen, in company with our own British species, but such evi- 

 dence is absolutely unreliable, for we can confidently assert 

 that it is almost impossible to distinguish the two birds on a 

 tree, as we have ourselves verified by shooting both species in 

 winter on the Continent. 



Range outside the Britisli Isles. An inhabitant of Northern Eu- 

 rope below the Arctic Circle, and ranging into Central Europe in 

 winter. The birds of Russia and Siberia have longer tails, 

 and specimens from high latitudes are purer in colour, but we 

 believe that it is virtually the same species from Scandinavia 

 to Kamtschatka, and the occurrence of the White-headed Long- 

 tailed Tit in the northern island of Japan is of peculiar interest 

 as showing the affinity of the Avi-fauna of this island to that of 

 Siberia, the southern islands having a resident species, ^i. tri- 

 virgatus. 



Habits. These appear to be the same as those of our British 

 bird. 



Nest. Like that of AL. vagans. 



Eggs. Not to be distinguished from those of ;E. vagans 



THE REEDLINGS. FAMILY PANURID^E. 

 This family contains but a single genus. 



PanuruS) Koch, Syst. Baier. Zool., p. 202 (1816). 



Type, P. biarmicus (Linn.). 



These curious little birds have been called " Bearded Tits/' 

 but it is questionable whether they are Paridce at all. Some 

 naturalists have even considered them to be an aberrant kind 

 of Bunting. They have not the feathered nostril of the 

 Tits, but rather an open nostril, oval, not rounded, with a 

 covering skin or operculum, which is absent in the Paridce. 

 But the most characteristic feature of the genus Panurus is it-; 

 plumage, which is unlike that of any Palsearctic Tit, but which 

 closely resembles that of the Reed-birds of the Lower Hima- 

 layas and China, the genera Paradoxornis^ Cholomis, &c. It is 



