LONG-TAILED TITMOUSE. 
185 
adult birds ; their eyelids are bright blood-red, the black 
about their head and upper parts is of a smoke colour, and all 
the other colours paler. 
The entire length of the Loiiff-tailed Titmouse is five 
inches and a half. The wing, from the carpus to the tip, is 
two and a half inches, and the tail, which is fully three inches 
long, extends two inches and a quarter beyond the closed 
wings ; the tarsi measure nine lines. The feathering of this 
bird is so silky and loose that the head and body are mingled 
into one shapeless ball. 
In this species the number of eggs varies from nine to 
twelve, and there are sometimes found as many as fifteen in 
one nest. They are in size and appearance as represented in 
figure 81, in the plate, being dull chalky-white, minutely 
speckled about the zone with rust-colour; some are found en¬ 
tirely plain. 
This little species is distinguished in different counties by 
various local names, in allusion to its peculiar manner of con¬ 
structing its nest. In Surrey it is called the “ Long-pod,” in 
Suffolk the “ Pudding-poke,” and, in some counties, the 
“ Bottle-tit,” all sufficiently descriptive of its habits. 
