THE LONG-TAILED TITMOUSE. 67 



rest of the under surface is yellow, the under tail-coverts white with dusky centres ; the back is green, 

 the wing-coverts blue grey with a white band across, formed by the tips of the greater coverts ; the 

 quills are blackish, edged with slaty-grey, becoming white towards the tips ; the secondaries are mar- 

 gined with yellow, shading into white towards the ends, the lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts 

 slaty -grey ; the tail blue-grey, the outer feather edged with white; bill black, feet leaden-grey, eye black. 

 The female is like the male, but has the black on the head and throat more dingy, and has the black 

 .stripe down the breast less distinctly marked. Young birds may always be told by a tinge of yellow 

 011 the cheeks. The range of this species appears to extend throughout the whole of Europe and 

 Northern Asia. 



The Long-tailed Titmouse (Acredula vayans) belongs to a small genus of birds, distinguished from 

 the true Titmice by their long graduated tails, which consist only of ten feathers. They are found 

 throughout the Palsearctic region, Europe, and Northern Asia. They differ greatly in their mode 

 of nesting, not building, like the Pari, in holes of trees or trees, but constructing a most beautiful 

 domed nest, from which circumstance their popular English names of Bumbarrel and Bottle-Tit are 

 derived. " Wonderful, indeed," writes Mr. Gould, " is the architectural skill displayed by the Long- 

 tailed Tit in the construction of its closely-felted nest, so warmly lined with feathers and externally 

 bespangled with lichens. Who can behold it without feeling the highest admiration of the bird's skill 

 and perseverance 1 If closely inspected, it will be found that the glaucous sides of the lichens are 

 always placed to the light, whereby the exterior is rendered still more beautiful. In the description of 

 the nest given below, it will be found that 2,000 feathers were taken from a single lining. With 

 what care, then, and diligence must the bird search for so many feathers on the surface of the 

 ground ! But this is as nothing compared with the amount of invisible cobwebs collected wherewith 

 to attach the decorative bits of litchen to the outside .... When these birds [the young] 

 are about ready to fly, they are very different in colour from the adults, and are altogether very sin- 

 gular little creatures their comparatively short tails, broad bills, thick, fleshy, yellow gape, red-ringed 

 eyes, and white crowns strongly contrasting with the hues of the old birds. When these nestlings 

 leave their cradle for the trees, they sit on the sunny side of the branches, and are there fed by their 

 parents. They soon gain strength, and flit about for their own living ; and when night comes on 

 crowd together on a low branch in a huddled heap, resembling a ball of feathers, their united bodies 

 giving out more heat in a mass than if perched singly. In the early morn, when the sun first sends 

 forth his genial rays, these little Tits may often be seen sitting in a row, all facing that luminary, and 

 at other times perched alternately head and tail so regularly as to astonish those who for the first time 

 witness it. A nest taken in the garden of Formosa, near Cliefden, on the 2nd of May, 1861, was of 

 large size and of an oval form, with an entrance in the side near the top. It was composed of moss 

 and cow-hair, outwardly adorned all over with small pieces of lichen affixed by means of gossamer-like 

 fibres and the empty cocoons of spiders' eggs, and so plentifully lined with feathers of various kinds, 

 that on being counted they proved to be about two thousand in number ; among them were observed 

 those of the Peacock, Turkey, Partridge, Barn-door Fowl, Greenfinch, Wood Pigeon, Duck, Turtle- 

 dove, Thrush, Blackbird, itc. It contained tea eggs, the total weight of which was 142 grains, their 

 colour white, thinly speckled with pale red." 



In his beautiful work Mr. Gould has figured a group of young Long-tailed Titmice, and has 

 given an illustration of a mass of these little birds closely packed together on the branch of a 

 tree. That the species does collect in lai-ge numbers, after the fashion of the African Colics and 

 other bii-ds, is proved by the fact, vouched for by Mr. J. H. Gurney, that Mr. Noble, of Darlington, 

 once fired at an object on a tree which he took for a Pheasant, but which proved to be a great ball of 

 Long-tailed Tits. Whether the ordinary Long-tailed Titmouse of France is the same as the British 

 species has not yet been determined ; but the bird of Northern Europe and Asia is the White-headed 

 Titmouse (Acredula caudata], which is again replaced in Japan by another species (Acredulatrivirgata)< 

 not unlike the British bird. In Spain and Italy the Long-tailed Titmouse (Acredula irbii) is 

 distinguished by its grey back ; and a specimen of this bird was shot by the author about thirty 

 miles from Paris, who can testify to its having a different note to that of the English species. 



The present species is about six inches in length, and has the back and tail black, the 

 outermost white with a black base, the latter increasing on each feather towards the centre of the 



