LONG-TAILED TIT. 377 
tura vagans applied to it. It is to be regretted that the 
generic characters, and the reasons which induced so ex- 
cellent a zoologist to make the separation in this instance, 
as well as in many others, at least as far I am aware, 
were never published. Other naturalists appear to coin- 
cide with Dr. Leach in the propriety of this division. M. 
Brehm, in his work on the Birds of Germany, published 
m 1831, considers the Long-tailed Tit entitled to generic 
distinction, and has used the term Paroides for it, ap- 
parently unaware of the name previously given by Dr. 
Leach. The Prince of Musignano, also, in his recently 
published “Comparative List of the Birds of Europe and 
North America,” adopts for the Long-tailed Tit the ge- 
neric term Mecistura. 
The Long-tailed Tit, as its name implies, has the tail 
long and graduated; three pair of the tail-feathers 
not only differmg from each other in length, but all of 
them also shorter than the other three pair; the legs 
and toes rather long and slender; the nest of the 
most perfect kind, oval in shape, domed at the top, with 
a small hole at the upper part of one side by which 
access is gained to the chamber within; the nest is 
generally fixed in the midst of a thick bush; the bird is 
more decidedly insectivorous, and some other differences in 
habits are observable. As, however, the genus Mecistura 
of Dr. Leach has not been adopted by either of the authors 
whose more recent ornithological works are referred to 
and quoted at the head of each separate subject here, I 
have included the Long-tailed Tit in the genus Parus. 
The Long-tailed Tit is a well-known and common spe- 
cies, that may be seen generally wherever there are 
woods, thickets, shrubberies, and tall hedges. It remains 
in this country the whole year, and in its habits among 
