26 



BEARDED TIT. 



pressed near the end, of a whitish flesh-colour, or orange ; except the 

 tip, or what is termed the nail, which is black, (the great characteristic 

 mark of distinction ;) the edges of both mandibles are serrated, the 

 irides hazel, or rufous brown. The head and neck cinereous brown ; 

 the whole underpart, as far as the legs, the same, but lighter ; darkest 

 on the thighs ; the forehead speckled with white, behind which the 

 feathers are dusky brown ; the back is ash-colour ; the lower part of the 

 belly, upper and under tail coverts, white ; scapulars brown ash-colour, 

 edged with white ; the greater quill-feathers are black : exterior webs 

 grey ; secondaries cinereous grey, margined with black on the outer 

 webs ; coverts grey, the larger ones tipped with white : legs dark 

 orange. There appears to be some little variation in the plumage of 

 these birds ; in some the bill is of a dull brownish red : the upper part 

 of the back, scapulars, and wing coverts, brown, dashed with cinereous, 

 and tipped with white : greater quills plain dusky black : secondaries 

 grey, tipped and margined with white. There is a callous knob on the 

 elbow of the wing. *The windpipe increases in size about the middle, 

 and its branchings into the lungs are short and tumid.* 



These birds come to us early in the winter, sometimes in large flocks, 

 and are as often seen in the uplands as in the fens, resorting to fields of 

 green wheat, which at that season they seem to prefer to any other 

 food. 



In the spring they retire northward to breed ; many are said to 

 inhabit Lewis, one of the Hebrides, all the summer, and breed there. 



It is frequently killed and sold at market for the fen or grey lag 

 goose ; and indeed is more frequent, but has long been confounded with 

 that bird. The specimen from which our description is taken, was 

 killed in Wales ; but we have seen it as far west as Devonshire. 



BEARDED TIT (Parus hiarmicus, Linn^us.) 



*Parus biarmicus, Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 1011. — Lath. Ind. 2. p. 570. sp. 23. — Parus 

 barbatus, Briss. 3. p. 567. 12. — Le Mesange barbue ou moustache, Buff. 5. 

 p. 518. t. 18.— Temm. 1. p. 298.— Least Butcher Bird, Edw. t. 55.— Bearded 

 Titmouse, Venn. Br. Zool. l.p. 167. Arct. Zool. 2. p. 248.— Lath. Syn. 4. 

 p. 552. 20.— Don. Br. Birds, 1. p. 1.— Shaw's Zool. 10. p. 62.— Bewick, I. 

 p. 246.— Mont. Orn. Diet. & Supp.— Selby, l.p. 236.— Flem. p. 81. 



Provincial. — Reed Pheasant.* 

 This very elegant species is about the size of the tomtit, but on 

 account of the length of the tail, is much longer, measuring about six 

 inches and a quarter. The bill is near half an inch long, of an orange 

 colour, differing somewhat from the rest of the genus, being a little 

 arcuated ; the upper mandible longest ; irides yellow. The head is pale 

 ash-colour ; beneath the eye is a tuft of loose black feathers, ending in 



