226 PASSERES. PARUS. GrEaT 
hind toe strong, and armed with a long and hooked claw. 
Wing, having the first quill of mean length, or almost defi- 
cient ; the second shorter than the third; the fourth and fifth 
the longest. 
The subjects of this well marked genus are of an active 
and bold character. Most of the species contained in the first 
section, inhabit woods and plantations, and are remarkable 
for the various attitudes in which they hang upon the bran- 
ches of trees, in search of insects and their larve. They 
also feed upon grain and many hard seeds, the kernels of 
which they obtain by repeated strokes of their sharp-pointed 
bill. Sometimes they will attack the young of other small 
birds, killing them by a fracture of the skull. - The members 
of the first section generally make their nests in the holes of 
trees or walls. Those of the second section live and breed 
amongst reeds, or in the other aquatic herbage that abounds 
in the particular districts they inhabit. They all produce a 
great many eggs, and, after the breeding season, collect, and 
“remain associated in families or small societies, through the 
remainder of the year. 
SECTION I. 
Having the first quill-feather of mean length. Inhabitants 
of woods. 
Great Titmouse.—Parus major, Lin. 
PLATE 51. Fig. 1. 
Parus major, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 341. 3.—Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 1006. sp. 3.—Lath. 
Ind. Ornith. v. 2. p. 562. 1.—Raii, Syn. p. 73. A. 1.—Wil. p. 174. 43.— 
Briss. 3. p. 539. 1. 
La grosse Mesange ou Charbonniére, Buff: Ois. v. 5. p. 392. t. 17.—Id. 
PI. Enl. 3. f. 1. 
Mesange Charbonniere, Temm. Man. d’Ornith. v. 1. p. 287. 
Kohlmeise, Bechst. Naturg. Deut. v. 3. p. 834.Meyer, Tasschenb. Deut. 
vy. 1. p. 267.—Frisch. t. 13. f. 1. 
Great Titmouse, or Oxeye, Br. Zool. 1. No. 162.—Arct. Zool. 2. p. 425, A. 
—Will.(Angl.) p. 240. t. 43.—Lewin’s Br. Birds, 3. t. 117.—Lath. Syn. 4. 
a 
