TITMOUSE. 265 



down of plants,* is sometimes as white as snow, at other times pale 

 brown, according- to the sort of down used ; it is placed in the middle 

 of a bush, and in general is difficult of access; the eggs are six or 

 eight, spotted with brown ; the male and female sit by turns : it has 

 many enemies; among birds, the Titmice and Barbets; also mice, 

 wasps, and ants, and even some reptiles, which devour the eggs or 

 young. The mice, after enlarging the orifice, make use of the nest 

 to store up the provisions, and the snakes to hide themselves. In one 

 of these nests M. Levaillant found an egg of the Didric, or Gilded 

 Cuckow; and in another, that of the Noisy Cuckow; but observes, 

 that he could not account for its introduction, unless before the narrow 

 part was finished ; as to the bird described by Sonnerat, if the same, 

 he thinks the nest is too precisely figured, and so far from the male 

 taking his station on the outside, both sexes sit by turns ; but pro- 

 bably the two birds may not be the same, as that of Sonnerat had a 

 bill nearly straight, and in the one last described it is a trifle bent; 

 neither does the plumage quite agree in colour. Levaillant ranks it 

 with the Fig-eaters. 



21 —AMOROUS TITMOUSE. 



Parus amorosus, Ind. Orn. ii. 568. Gm. Lin. i. 1015. 30. 



La Mesange amou reuse, Buf. v. 456. 



Amorous Titmouse, Gen, Sy/i. iv. 546. 15. Shaw's Zool. x. p. 42. 



LENGTH five inches and a quarter, weight three drachms. Bill 

 black, the end orange; plumage deep slate-colour, nearly black ; 

 on the middle of the wing a longitudinal spot, half yellow, half 

 rufous, formed by the outer margins of some of the middle coverts, 

 which are of these colours. 



Inhabits the northern parts of Asia, and has obtained the name 

 from its disposition : when kept in a cage in pairs, nothing can exceed 



* The nest made of the Asclepias, — Barrow's Trav. p. 323. 



VOL. VII. M M 



