350 OXEYE. 



brane, with which the eye is frequently covered when exposed to a 

 strong light, instead of closing the eyelid. 



Some species occasionally prey by day when the weather is cloudy, 

 but mostly by twilight, or by the light of the moon ; for they can no 

 more see in total darkness than any other animal.* 



OXBIRD. — A name for the Strut. 



OXEYE {Parus major, Ray.) 



*Parus major, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 341. 3 Gmel Syst. l.p. 1006. sp.3 Lath. Ind. 



Orn. 2. p. 562. l.—Raii, Syn. p. 73. A. 1 Wils. p. 174. 43.— Briss. 3. p. 



539. 1. — La grosse Mesange ou Charbonniere, Buff. Ois. 5. p. 392. t. 17 — lb. 

 pi. Enl. 3. f. 1 — Mesange Charbonniere, Temm. Man. d'Orn. 1. p. 287. — 



Kohlmeise, Bechst. Naturg. Deut. 3. p. 834 Meyer, Tasschenb. Deut. 1. p. 



267.— Frisch, t. 13. f. 1.— Great Titmouse, or Oxeye, Br. Zool. 1. No. 162.— 



Arct. Zool. 2. p. 425. A Will. (Angl.) p. 240. t. 43 Lewin's Br. Birds, 3. 



t. 117.— Lath. Syn. 4.— Mont. Orn. Diet.— Bewick's Br. Birds, 1. pi. 237 



FLem. Br. Anim. p. 80.— Selhy, pi. 51. fig. 1. p. 226.* 



Provincial. — Great Black-headed Tomtit. Blackcap. 



This species weighs about ten drams ; length five inches and three 



quarters. The bill is black ; irides dusky. The head and throat black; 



cheeks white ; back olive-green ; the rump bluish-grey ; belly yellow, 



tinged with green, divided down the middle to the vent by a broad 



black list, most conspicuous in the male ; quill -feathers dusky ; coverts 



bluish, the larger tipped with white ; tail dusky ; the outer feathers 



white on the exterior webs, the others margined with bluish grey; legs 



lead colour. 



The Oxeye has all the habits of the blue tit. The nest is made of 

 moss, lined with hair, placed in the hole of a wall or tree. We once 

 found it in the barrel of a garden pump. It lays sometimes as many as 

 eight eggs, but more commonly six, white, spotted with rust-colour, 

 which are so exactly like those of the nuthatch as not to be distin- 

 guished ; their weight about thirty grains. 



We have known this bird deposit its eggs in the hole of a decayed 

 tree upon the rotten wood, without the least appearance of a nest: pro- 

 bably the nest had been destroyed just at the time the bird was compel- 

 led to lay, and she had not time to make another. The common note is 

 a sort of chatter, but in the spring it assumes a greater variety, a shrill 

 whistle, and a very singular noise, something like the whetting of a 

 saw ; but these cease with incubation. 



This is a very common species in the wooded and inclosed districts, 

 but rarely occurs in the open part of the country. Its food consists of 

 insects and their laryse, which it finds upon the foliage, or in the in- 

 terstices of the bark of the tree. It will sometimes attack a bird its 

 inferior in size, or one in a sickly state, fracturing its skull by re- 



