Family PARIDA. 
Genus ACREDULA. 
Parus apud Linneus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 342 (1766). 
Acredula, Koch, Baier. Zool. i. p. 199 (1816). 
Mecistura apud Leach, Cat. M. & B. Brit. Mus. p. 17 (1816). 
Paroides apud C. L. Brehm, Isis, 1828. 
Orites apud G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of B. p. 52 (1841). 
THis genus differs from Parus chiefly in having an extremely long tail and in having the tip 
of the upper mandible elongated and decurved. It inhabits the Palearctic Region, ranging 
eastward to Japan. Four species only are found in the Western Palearctic Region; and two 
others inhabit the Eastern Palearctic Region. ‘The species included in the genus are active 
restless birds, inhabiting groves and the borders of woods, resembling in habits the true Titmice. 
They feed on insects of various kinds, which they obtain amongst the foliage or pick off from the 
bark of the trees they frequent. They build an oval nest, with an entrance-hole in the side, 
which is attached to a branch, and deposit numerous small white eggs faintly dotted with red. 
Acredula caudata, the type of the genus, has the beak short, stout, compressed, the upper 
mandible with the sides convex and sloping, the tip acute, elongated, and decurved; nostrils 
small, round, concealed by the feathers; eyelids with broad bare margins; wings moderate, 
rounded, the first quill short, the second shorter than the eighth, the fifth longest; tail long, 
straight, graduated; tarsi moderate, covered in front with four plates and three inferior scutelle ; 
feet moderate, slender; claws long, arched, extremely compressed, laterally grooved, acute; 
plumage soft and loose. 
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