COLYMBUS. 



97 



confirmed in the opinion from an error in Sepp, who has given a figure 

 of each as male and female. 



We can, however, with certainty refute this opinion, from various 

 opportunities of attending- to the nests of both species. 



The nest of this bird is placed in some hole, either in a wall or a 

 tree ; it is composed of moss and wool, lined with hair ; the eggs are 

 six or seven in number, less than those of the marsh tit, of the same 

 colour, white, spotted with rusty red ; but the spots are smaller and 

 more numerous ; their weight is fourteen or fifteen grains. 



The Cole Tit is not so plentiful a species as the marsh tit, keeps 

 more in the woods, and seems to live entirely on insects, as we have 

 never been able to discover it partaking of flesh or grain with the 

 other species ; its note is also different. 



*"In Scotland," says Selby, "I have found it abundantly in all the 

 pine forests, which seem to be its appropriate and favourite habitat, to 

 the comparative exclusion of the other species. In these extensive 

 tracts, covered by the natural growth of the country, or planted by 

 the great landed proprietors, it has both a secure retreat and a constant 

 supply of food, consisting of the aphides, larvae, and others of the 

 insect tribe that are peculiar to the different species of fir, together 

 with the seeds and berries of various evergreens. It is very lively in 

 all its motions, and rivals the blue tit in the attitudes it assumes in 

 quest of its prey, amid the higher branches of the pines. Its note 

 is shriller and more pleasing than in the other species, and tends much 

 to break the gloomy solitude of the tracts it frequents."* 



COLE MOUSE.— A name for the Cole Tit, 



COLK. — A name for the King Eider. 



COLUMBA (LiNNiEUS.) — *Dove or Pigeon, a genus thus cha- 

 racterised. Bill (save at the point, which is bent down) compressed 

 and straight, the base of the upper mandible being covered with a soft 

 gristly substance, in which the nostrils are placed towards the middle 

 of the bill, forming a cleft lengthwise. The feet having three toes 

 before entirely separated, with one hind toe articulated on the heel. 

 Wings of middle size, the first quill rather shorter than the second, 

 which is the longest in the wing.* 



COLUMBID.E (Leach.)— *Birds of the Dove or Pigeon kind.* 

 COLYMBIDiE (Leach.)— * Birds of the Diver kind.* 

 COLYMBUS (Latham.) — * Diver, a genus thus characterised. Bill 

 of middle size, strong-, straight, much pointed, compressed. Nostrils at 

 the sides of the base, concave, oblong, half shut by a membrane, 

 pierced from part to part. Legs of middle length, drawn towards the 



H 



