412 INSECTI VOILE. 



render them among the most interesting of our little 

 birds. 



THE BLUE TIT (PaTUS 



The blue tit, of which a figure is given on the plate at 

 page 370, on a scale of one-third of the lineal dimensions, is 

 a very beautiful and lively little bird ; and few of the British 

 species are either so generally distributed or so numerous in 

 their localities. In some places of the country it is called the 

 torn-tit, and in others the ox-eye ; but as both of these 

 names are, in other places, given to the great tit, it is better, 

 for general purposes, to avoid them altogether, and retain 

 only that trivial name which is expressive of the prevailing 

 colour of the upper part of the bird, and thus can lead to no 

 mistake in any district. 



The colours, though different in their tints from those of 

 the great tit, bear some resemblance to them in their dis- 

 position. The forehead, sides of the head, and cheek, are 

 white, divided by a black line across the eye ; the crown of 

 the head is blue; the nape, and collar round the neck, bright 

 azure ; the back a mixed tint of azure, grey, and green, the 

 azure generally predominating, but all confluent without 

 mottling ; the wings and tail are pale blue, the greater 

 coverts of the former with white tips ; the throat and mesial 

 line on the under part, deep blackish-blue ; the breast pale 

 yellow, passing into darker and greyish yellow on the sides ; 

 the bill and feet blackish-grey. The colours of the male are 

 subject to some variations, in all probability climatal ones, as 

 in hot countries the blue on the back, which has always a 

 tinge of greenish-grey, becomes olive green, and even inclines 

 to dusky, or black, and the yellow on the under part becomes 

 paler. The female is a little paler in the tints than the male, 

 has less blue on the head, and is rather smaller in size. The 

 young birds have the light parts more inclining to yellow, and 



