386 PARID^E. 



and Essex. It is found also in Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, 

 Norfolk, and Lincolnshire ; but has not been traced in this 

 country, as before observed, north of the Humber. Pen- 

 nant says it is found, though rarely, in Sweden ; but as 

 this bird does not appear in the works of Muller, Brisson, 

 or Nilsson, referring to the ornithology of Denmark, Norway, 

 and Sweden, or in the recently published Fauna of Scandi- 

 navia by the naturalist last named, I am induced to suppose 

 that Pennant was mistaken on this point. It is very abun- 

 dant in Holland ; and numbers are brought alive from that 

 country to the London Markets for sale : the price is usually 

 four or five shillings a pair ; and the birds are attractive 

 in confinement from the beauty of the plumage, their graceful 

 form, and general sprightliness. They are not very common 

 either in France, Provence, Italy, or Sicily ; but are found 

 on the marshy borders of the Black and the Caspian seas. 



In the adult male, when alive, the beak and irides are of 

 a most delicate orange colour ; the head, neck, and ear- 

 coverts, pearl-grey ; descending from the space between the 

 base of the beak and the eye is a black pendent whisker, or 

 moustache, of three quarters of an inch in length, and 

 ending in a point ; back, greater wing-coverts, and upper 

 tail-coverts, fawn-colour ; the smaller wing-coverts black ; 

 the primaries greyish brown, with narrow white outer 

 edges; the tertials with broad external edges of fawn 

 colour, bounding a black stripe ; the internal webs being 

 buify white ; the middle tail-feathers three inches long, the 

 others shorter and graduated ; the outside tail-feather one 

 inch and a half long, black at the base, and white at the 

 end ; the two next pairs white on the outer webs, and 

 buffy white on the inner webs ; the other six nearly uniform 

 fawn colour. Chin, throat, and breast, white, tinged with 

 grey, and passing into yellowish white on the belly ; the 



