258 TITMOUSE. 



Parus Russicus, Gmel. reise, ii. 1G4. t. 10. 



Pendulus, Kramer, p. 373. 



Certhia arundinum, Gerin. iv. t. 364. 2. 



La Mesange barbue, ou la Moustache, Buf. v. 418. pi. 18. PI. enl. 618. 1. 2. 



Least Butcher-bird, Edw. pi. 55. 



Bearded Titmouse, Gen. Syn. iv. 552. Id. Sup. 190. Br. Zool. i. No. 167. Id.fol. 



74. pi. C. 2. Id. Ed. 1S12. i p. 540. Arct. Zool. ii. 428. H. Albin, i. pi. 48. 



Bewick, i. pi. p. 246. Shaw's Zool. x. p. 62. pi. 7. Lewin, Birds, iii. pi. 122. 



Donov. Birds, i. pi. 1. Walcot, Syn. ii. pi. 148. Osterl. Menag. pi. in p. 78. 



Orn. Diet. 



SIZE of the Long-tailed Titmouse, but stouter ; length six 

 inches and a quarter, breadth six inches and a half. Bill nearly 

 half an inch long, and orange-colour, a trifle bent; irides yellow; 

 the head pale ash-colour ; beneath the eye a tuft of black feathers, 

 ending in a point, not unlike a mustachoe ; hind part of the neck 

 and upper part of the back and wings orange bay, or rufous ; scapu- 

 lars and throat white; breast flesh-coloured ; belly, sides, and thighs, 

 like the back, but paler; vent black; quills dusky, within whitish; 

 the secondaries edged with rufous, and those nearest the body tipped 

 with the same ; the tail is very cuneiform, the two middle feathers 

 two inches and three quarters long, of nearly the same colour as the 

 back, the outer one very short, and almost white at the end, the next 

 much the same, but the end white only for a little way; the third 

 only so at the tip ; legs black. 



In the female the whiskers under the eyes are wanting ; crown of 

 the head ferruginous, spotted with black ; and the vent not black, 

 but like the rest of the under parts. 



These birds are found in various parts of England, but only in 

 marshy situations, where reeds grow, on the seeds of which they feed, 

 as well as on small insects ; also small shells, the remains of all of 

 which have been found in their stomachs.* They are in numbers 

 not inconsiderable, in the marshes, among the reeds, between Erith, 



* Mr. Lamb observes, that the stomach was very muscular, and not only the remains 

 of small shells, but in the male was one small shell entire. 



