26 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Feb. 1, 1865. 



a better source of pleasure than the gratifica- 

 tion of animal propensities, it indicates but a 

 sorry intellectual cajiacity in those who in- 

 quire concerning every pursuit that is un- 

 connected with the necessities of life— Cm 

 Bono, " What good is it f ' 



" I have never known a man," says an old 

 author, " become a worse husband, a worse 

 father, or a worse friend, because he shared 

 his love with a bird, a beetle, or a butterriy ; 

 and such an one is no less entitled to respect 

 because he does not scorn to learn a lesson 

 from the meanest thing that God has made." 



A TIT IN MOUSTACHES! 



4/' 





IN these modern days of hirsute appendages, 

 when bipeds in moustaches are by no 

 means rare, it may be a novelty to some to 

 learn that the infection of fashion extends to 

 " bipeds with feathers," and that a little bird, 

 a Tit, is indigenous to our own country, which 

 bears a most unmistakeable pair of sleek, 

 black, pointed moustaches, but with which 

 the males only are furnished. The Tits are a 

 daring, im|judent family from the Great Tit 

 down to Tomtit, and carry a saucy appeai'- 

 ance in their very physiognomy. Everyone who 

 has an orchard knows the Blue Tit, and his 

 lively fantastic evolutions about the branches 

 of apple trees, sometimes on one side of a 

 bough and then on the other \ as often head 

 downwards as with his head uppermost j v/ilh 

 his rough hair-like coat of feathers blowing 

 about like that of a Skye terrier, or the shaggy 

 tuft T/hich surmounts the head of a little city 

 Arab. Our Tit is a far sleeker, smarter bird, 

 he is in fact the "exquisite" of the family of 

 Tits, and so far has severed connection with 

 the plebeian Tits, that he has taken to himself 



a new family name, and is regarded by natu- 

 ralists as the type and scion of a new house, 

 allied by family ties and old associations with 

 the Tits, but no longer destined to bear their 

 classical name {Parus). The Bearded Tit, for 

 so it is most commonly called, has been digni- 

 fied with a more aristocratic title (Ccdamo- 

 2)hihcs'^) long enough to satisfy the most 

 emuloiis of birds, and it no doubt glories, if 

 bird can glory, in its trim, sleek, aristocratic 

 apj)earance, an aristocratic pair of long black 

 moustaches, and an aristocratic name. Little 

 boys in Norfolk make " game " of it and call 

 it reed pheasant, but it bears the sobriquet 

 without complaint. Neither does it resent 

 being called "Pinnock" as in some localities, 

 though perfectly innocent of " Catechisms." 

 Specimens of this bird mounted on little 

 v/ooden perches, and placed on the shelves of 

 glazed cases in public museums, are gross 

 libels upon the bird in its state of nature. 

 We have never seen a stufied specimen quite 

 to our mind, and scores that we strongly 

 object to. Amongst his native reeds he is 

 the liveliest little " acrobat " one ever saw, 

 running up and down, sometimes with head 

 uppermost, but as often with the long tail 

 thrust out towards the zenith, and his head 

 where ordinary and less vivacious birds seem 

 by their conduct to consider that the tail 

 ought to be. One of the best descriptions yet 

 given of this bird in its native habitat, is that 

 of an observer, in the eighth number of 

 Loudoris Magazine, nearly forty years ago, 

 but the facts are true still. "I went," he 

 wrote, "accompanied by one person and a 

 dog to a piece of reeds below Barking Creek, 

 on a cold, windy, dull morning, weather by 

 no means favourable for my purpose. Arrived 

 on our ground, we traversed it for some time 

 without success j and vt'ere about to leave it, 

 when our attention was roused by the alarm 

 cry of this species, and looking up, we saw 

 eight or ten of these beautiful little creatures 

 on the wing, just topping the reeds over our 

 heads, uttering in full chorus their sweetly 

 musical note, which resembles (if it may be 

 likened to a word) the monosyllable ^:)m^, ping; 

 pronounced at first slow and single, then two 

 or three times in a more hurried manner : it 

 may be compared to the music of very small 

 cymbals ; is clear and ringing, though soft, 

 and corresponds well with the delicacy and 

 beauty of the form and colour of the bird. 

 We saw several flocks during the morning, 



* Perhaps the most recently adopted or revived 

 scientific name for this bird is that given by Mr. 

 G. K.. Gray in his catalogue — Pamirus biarmicus. 



