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HABITS OF THE BEARDED TIT. (Pants Biarmicus, Linnaeus.) 



BY EDWARD BLYTH. 



The Male Bearded Tit. 



It is not a little curious, that this most elegant bird should still be 

 placed by most of our modern naturalists in the genus Parus; a cir- 

 cumstance which must have originated in a very shallow kind of 

 observation, as it certainly does not possess any of those peculiarities 

 which are characteristic of that genus. It is by no means easy to 

 ascertain the proper situation of any bird in a system, without actually 

 observing its manners when alive ; but the very great difference in the 

 form of the bill, in the colours and markings of its plumage, and in 

 the general appearance of the bird itself, would certainly seem to 

 intimate that this species could never rank among the tits. I am not 

 aware of any foreign species resembling our bird, but it certainly pos- 

 sesses peculiarities which warrant its being placed as a genus by itself. 



I have now had this species in confinement a considerable length 

 of time. Great numbers are annually imported about the fall of the 



