58 SOMBRE TIT. 



GRANIVOR^E. 



Family PA RID2E. (Bonaparte.) 



Genus Parus. (Linnceus.J 



Generic Characters. — Beak short, straight, strong, conical, and compressed; 

 edges sharp and pointed, the base furnished with a few stiff hairs; nostrils 

 basal, round, and covered with reflected bristly feathers. Feet short, with 

 three toes in front and one behind, entirely divided to their origin; hind 

 toe the strongest, and armed with a long hooked claw. Wings, the first 

 primary very short, the second much shorter than the third, the fourth, 

 fifth, and sixth about equal in length, and the longest in the wing. 



SOMBRE TIT. 



Parus lugubris. 



Parus lugubris, Natterer. Temminck. 



" " Bonaparte, 1838. 



" " schinz. schlegel. 



Pcecilia lugubris, Kaup. Bonaparte, 1850. 



Mesange lugubre, Of the French. 



Trauermeise, Of the Germans. 



Specific Characters. — Top of the head, nape, and throat brownish black, 

 separated by a broad white band extending from the gape to the nape, and 

 increasing in width from before backwards. Length five inches and three 

 tenths; carpus to tip of wing three inches; tail two inches and a half; 

 beak from gape three fifths of an inch; tarsus nine tenths of an inch. 



The Tits are a very well-marked family. In disposition of colours, 

 in form, and habit, they very much resemble each other, in whatever 

 part of the world they are found; and yet almost every species is, 

 by some author or other, placed in a separate genus. Thus in the 



