488 PARID.E. 



The male has the bill dusky, with horn-coloured edges : 

 the irides dark hazel : the forehead and a line running back- 

 ward over each eye, so as to completely encircle the head, 

 white, the crown of the head blue, light in front and darker 

 behind ; a band of dusky blue runs from the nostril to the 

 eye, and thence above each ear-covert to the nape, whence it 

 descends, on either side of the neck, behind the cheeks, 

 which are white ; behind this band the nape is whitish ; the 

 mantle, rump and upper tail-coverts are yellowish- green ; 

 wings and tail blue ; the greater wing-coverts and the tertials 

 tipped with white ; the chin and throat are of a bluish-black, 

 which meets the dark band of the sides of the neck; the 

 breast, belly and flanks, sulphur-yellow, with a mesial stripe 

 of bluish-black on the first wing- and tail-feathers beneath, 

 pearl-grey : legs, toes and claws, bluish-grey. 



The whole length is four inches and a half. From the 

 carpal joint to the end of the wing, two inches and three- 

 eighths ; the third and fourth primaries equal and longest. 



In winter the dark patch on the throat is mottled with 

 white. The female is less bright in colour than the male. 

 The young are marked like the adults, but all their tints are 

 more dingy, and their plumage is suffused with yellow. 



By Kaup this bird, with the Parus cyanus of Eastern 

 Europe and Siberia, has been removed to a genus Cyanistes, 

 which, in the case of the former at least, is quite unnecessary. 



The fondness for flesh and fat which, as mentioned above, 

 the Bluecap shews is shared by other species of the genus 

 Parus, and many persons who delight in watching the actions 

 of these lively little birds attract them to spots where they 

 can be conveniently observed by ministering to this taste. 

 No mode of enticing them is better than that of hanging a 

 lump of suet or tallow by a short string to the end of a flexi- 

 ble rod stuck aslant into the ground close to the window of a 

 sitting-room. It is seldom long before a Titmouse of some 

 kind finds the dainty, and once found visits are constantly 

 made to it until every morsel is consumed. No other bird 

 can succeed in keeping a foothold on the swinging lure, but 

 the strong grasp of a Titmouse renders the feat easy for him. 



