TION. 



Class II. GREAT TITMOUSE. 533 



picking off the tender buds. Like wood-peck- 

 ers they are perpetually running up and down 

 the bodies of trees in quest of food. The bird 

 has three chearful notes, which it begins to 

 utter in the month of February. 



The head and throat of this species are Descrip- 

 black ; the cheeks white ; the back green ; the 

 belly of a yellowish green, divided in the middle 

 by a bed of black, which extends to the vent ; 

 the rump is of a bluish grey. The quil fea- 

 thers are dusky, edged partly with blue, partly 

 with white ; the coverts blue, the greater tipt 

 with white. The exterior sides of the outmost 

 feathers of the tail are white ; the exterior sides 

 of the other bluish ; their interior sides dusky ; 

 the legs lead color. The toes are divided to the 

 origin; and the back toe of the whole genus is 

 very large and strong. 



It appears in Italy towards the end of April, 

 and retires, as most of the titmice do in that 

 country, in October. 



" Inhabits Europe throughout, and indeed 

 every part of the old continent, at least from 

 Sweden to the Cape of Good Hope, and also 

 7ndia, where it is called Har Goura. Mr. 

 Lewin records the circumstance of one having 

 been killed at Faversham, which had both man- 

 dibles singularly elongated or crossed in the 

 manner of the Crossbill." J. L. 



