COLE TIT. 371 
Sicily. M.Temminek includes it in his Catalogue of the 
Birds of Japan. 
The adult male has the beak black; the irides hazel ; 
the cheeks, side of the neck, and a descending stripe on 
the nape of the neck, white; the head, ear-coverts, and 
the lower part of the side of the neck before the wing, 
black ; back and wing-coverts bluish grey; the smaller 
and larger coverts ending with a spot of white on each 
feather, forming two conspicuous white bars across the 
wings ; the quill-feathers brownish grey, edged with green ; 
the tertials tipped with dull white; upper tail-coverts 
greenish fawn colour; tail-feathers, like those of the 
wings, brownish grey; the tail slightly forked. The chin 
and throat black; breast dull white; belly, flanks, and 
under tail-coverts, fawn-colour, tinged with green; under 
surface of wing and tail-feathers grey; legs, toes, and 
claws, black. 
This bird is at once distinguished from the Marsh Tit, 
next to be described, by the white patch on the nape of 
the neck, and by the white spots on the wing-coverts, 
which are always present, neither of which are to be found 
in the Marsh Tit at any age. 
The whole length of the Cole Tit is four inches and a 
quarter. From the carpal joint to the end of the wing 
two inches and three-eighths: the first feather very short ; 
the second shorter than the third, and equal to the se- 
venth; the third, fourth, and fifth, nearly equal to each 
other in length, and the longest in the wing. 
Females and young birds, have the grey colour of the 
back tinged with greenish brown; in young birds, also, the 
white colour is not so pure, and the black colour about the 
head is less decided. 
