268 TITMOUSE. 



but not more eastward, or near the Cape itself. It makes the nest 

 in the holes of trees, composed of fibres of plants, lined with wool, 

 and lays from six to eight white eggs. The note is so like that of 

 our European Species, as to make any one suppose it to be the same 

 bird. 



25.— GREY TITMOUSE. 



La Mesangc grisette, Levail. Afr. iii. 164. pi. 138. f. 1. — male. f. 2. Var. 



SIZE of the last. Bill and irides black brown ; head and neck 

 black; from the nostrils white, increasing in width, and passing 

 under the eye to the ears, where it is broadest, and again lessening, 

 passes on to the breast ; the white also bounds the lower part of the 

 neck behind; the back and upper parts blue grey; beneath, the 

 same, but paler ; greater wing coverts and second quills dusky, 

 bordered with white ; the greater the same, but brown ; upper tail 

 coverts black ; tail black, even, the outer feather edged with white, 

 the second the same, but more narrow, and the third fringed only 

 at the tip ; legs bluish. 



The female is smaller, the colours less brilliant; crown and 

 throat black-brown, and the grey above has a rufous tinge. Young 

 birds have the throat mixed brown, and are otherwise inclined to 

 fulvous. 



Inhabits the Mimosa woods of Candeboo, and there called Ma- 

 labartje. It varies in having the wings and tail white. 



26— AZURE TITMOUSE 



Parus cyanus, Ltd. Orn. ii. 563. Gm. Lin. i. 1007. N. C. Petr. xiv. 588. t. 23. f. 1. 



Falck. It. iii. 407. t. 31. Tern. Man. d'Orn. 172. Id. Ed. ii. 295. 

 Parus Indicus Aldr. Raii, 74. 7. Will. 177. Aldr. Av. ii. 714. t. p. 715. Gerin. iv. 



t. 378. 2. 

 Parus dorso caeruleo, &c. N. C. Petr. xiv. 498. t. 13. f. 1. 



