38 BRITISH BIRDS. 



Male : crown blue-grey ; upper parts and tail reddish- 

 buff ; wing-coverts banded with black, white and reddish - 

 brown ; primaries brownish, edged with white ; a black 

 moustache-like patch runs from before the eye to side of 

 throat, where it terminates in a pointed tuft ; throat dull 

 white ; breast with a slight tinge of flesh-colour ; sides 

 reddish-buff ; under tail-coverts black ; bill and iris 

 yellow ; feet black. Length 6*50. Female : duller than 

 male ; crown, moustache and under tail-coverts, pale 

 orange-brown. Young: general reddish tint of male quite 

 replaced by buffish-yellow ; centre of back and outer tail- 

 feathers chiefly black. 



A resident, but only known now to breed in the Norfolk 

 Broads, and (according to Mr. Saunders) in one locality in 

 Devonshire. It formerly bred in many eastern and 

 southern counties, and still occasionally straggles in winter 

 to its old haunts. Nest : placed in aquatic herbage, or 

 broken-down reeds ; cup-shaped, composed of blades of 

 sedges and grasses, lined with vegetable down. Eggs : 

 4 to 7 ; shell glossy, creamy-white, with short streaks of 

 reddish-brown ; size 70 by '56. 



Family Paridae. 



GENUS XX. ACREDULA, Koch (1816). 

 Bill very short, strong, compressed laterally, both upper 

 and under mandibles curved, former longer- than latter. 

 Wings with 4th and 5th quills longest. Tail slightly 

 longer than body, narrow and much graduated. Tarsus 

 fairly long, claws rather curved. 



48. Aeredula eaudata (Linn.). WHITE-HEADED 



LONG-TAILED TITMOUSE. 



Hab. Scandinavia, Russia and Eastern Germany ; also 

 Siberia. 



