490 BRITISH BIRDS. 



The food of the Long-tailed Tit^ though chiefly, is not entirely composed of 

 insects ; for it also eats small seeds of various kinds, such as those of grasses 

 and of the birch. Its call-notes are not perhaps quite so varied as those 

 of the other Tits. Besides the usual clear and shrill zi-zi-zi or pe-pe-pe it 

 has a different note, something like what I call the spluttering note of the 

 Crested Tit — a sort of ptge, impossible to express on paper, which is 

 constantly repeated when feeding. It has no note that can be called a 

 song. 



The British form of the Long-tailed Tit has the head white ; on each 

 side of the crown, extending from just before the eye to the nape, is a 

 black band ; the back is black, shading into a rosy pink on the rump and 

 scapulars ; the wings are brownish-black, the innermost secondaries are 

 broadly edged with white ; the tail, which is very long, is black, the three 

 outside feathers white on the outer web, and on part of the inner web at 

 the end, the white only extending over half of the third feather ; bill 

 black ; legs, toes, and claws dark brown ; eyelids red ; irides hazel. 

 The female does not differ from the male, except that the black band 

 on the head and nape is broader. Young birds are duller than their 

 parents. 



The Continental form of the Long-tailed Tit, whose chief point of dis- 

 tinction has been already noticed, has occurred several times in the British 

 Islands. In November 1852 a specimen was picked up dead at Tyue- 

 mouth, and is now in Mr. Hancock's collection. Another is in the New- 

 castle Museum; but there appears to be no reliable information concerning 

 it, and therefore it is only with great doubt that it can be classed as a 

 " British specimen." Mr. John Gatcombe records, in the ' Zoologist ' 

 (1872, p. 2943), the occurrence of another specimen, observed by him in 

 the October of the previous year. And, lastly, Mr. John Cordeaux states, 

 in the 'Zoologist' (1873, p. 3401), that he saw an example in North 

 Lincolnshire in the winter of 1872. Both the birds in the last two 

 instances were in company with a flock of the British form of this bird. 



The habits of this subspecies are not known to differ from those of its 

 British representative ; nor is there any difference in its nest and eggs, — 

 rendering a further description of them quite unnecessary. 



