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75 o The Sparrow-like Birds 



The Black-and-white Tit (Parus [Pentheres] niger) of the southern Ethiopian 

 region may be selected as an example of a group in which the plumage is glossy 

 black, this particular species being further marked by having the primaries 

 and wing-coverts conspicuously edged with white. Mr. Andersson found it in 

 Damara Land generally in pairs, searching among the larger trees for insects 

 and their larvae, and also notes that it sometimes feeds on seeds. 



Blue Titmice. White and blue are the dominant colors in another group 

 (Cyanistes), of which the handsome Blue Titmouse (P. caruleus} may be selected 

 as an example. Only four and a half inches long, it has the back yellowish green 

 and the wings and tail bluish, while the crown is bright blue encircled with white, 

 the cheeks white bordered with blue, and the breast and abdomen lemon -yellow, 

 traversed along the middle of the abdomen by a dark bluish line. Ranging 

 throughout Europe generally, it is even better known and more highly prized than 

 the Great Titmouse, frequenting gardens and orchards near human habitations, 

 and exhibiting in extreme degree the characteristics which make the Tits so 

 engaging. It is an active, restless, cheerful bird, gathering in small flocks after 

 the young are reared and wandering about during the winter in company with 

 the other Titmice and Goldcrests, or not infrequently migrating to the south- 

 ward. It has, says Mr. Hudson, the power to assume an endless variety of 

 graceful positions when clinging to the slender branches and twigs, upright or 

 pendulous, of the leafless trees in winter, and always attracts admiring attention. 

 The nest is placed in a great variety of situations, such as a hole in a tree or wall, 

 a nesting box, or rarely in a hole in the ground, and is composed of moss, wool, 

 and feathers; the eggs, "from seven to twelve or fourteen, or occasionally even 

 more," are white spotted with pale red. In northwest Africa it is replaced by 

 the Algerian Blue Titmouse (P. ultramarinus), which has all of the blue portions 

 of the plumage of a darker hue, while in central and eastern Russia occurs the 

 related Azure Titmouse (P. cyanus), a strikingly beautiful bird* with the head 

 snowy white, the back bluish gray, the wings grayish brown, the outer webs 

 of the feathers Prussian blue tipped with white and the long tail bright blue, 

 the outer feathers and tips white, while the under parts are white with a small 

 patch of bluish black in the middle of the breast. This species does not frequent 

 forests, but is usually found in damp places such as willow thickets along streams, 

 and is as active and restless as the majority of Tits. It has a great variety of 

 notes, especially call notes, and is stronger on the wing than most of its kin. 

 The nest is usually placed in a hole in a willow tree and the eggs often number 

 ten or eleven. 



Coal and Marsh Titmice. Much plainer in plumage and falling near the 

 group which embraces the American species already mentioned, is the Coal 

 Tit (P. ater) of Europe generally, which has the upper parts gray, the wings 

 with two white bands, and the crown, throat, and fore neck black, while the 

 cheeks and nape are pure white and the lower parts white tinged with gray. 

 More nearly allied with the American species and in fact belonging to the same 

 group is the well-known Marsh Tit (P. palustris), which in a great number of 

 geographical races is spread over almost the whole of Europe and Asia. 



