70 DE LA BECHE ON GEOLOGICAL FACTS. 



To judge from the strange situation in which this beautiful species 

 has generally been placed in our systems, it would seem to be but very 

 imperfectly known to most of our naturalists, and I have therefore 

 dilated the more upon its manners and peculiarities, as they appear in 

 confinement. It may probably seem frivolous to some to enter into 

 such minute details, but the most trifling circumstance is often of 

 essential assistance in working out the best arrangement of the pro- 

 ductions of nature, and will frequently furnish a clue to the discovery 

 of more important particulars. 



The Bearded Tit ought undoubtedly to stand as a genus by itself, 

 and to rank among the Laniante, or birds of the shrike kind ; which 

 group it seems more nearly to resemble, than it does the tits, or any 

 other. 



I shall conclude by observing, that the bill of the living bird is of a 

 fine delicate yellow, and not of an orange colour, as it has generally 

 been described ; but that in the course of an hour or two after death 

 it changes to orange : and that the female has the same singular 

 longish feathers on the sides of the throat as the male bird ; but that 

 being of the same colour as the rest of the plumage, it can only be 

 noticed in certain lights. 



Tooting , Surrey, Dec. 31, 1832. 



[Temminck, Lesson, Selby, and others, say the female wants the 

 moustachios, and a female which I possess in fine feather most cer- 

 tainly wants them, as I have just caught her to ascertain. Mr. Blyth 

 proposes Laniellus as a generic name, which I think very appro- 

 priate. The species may accordingly be termed Laniellus Biarmicus. — 

 Editor.] 



M. DE LA BECHE, ON GEOLOGICAL FACTS * 



Theories and fanciful systems have been the bane of Geology ; and 

 though the investigation of facts has recently been enthusiastically 

 cultivated, this, as appears from some late publications, has tended but 

 little to check the mania for theorizing. The newly-broached theories, 

 however, differ from the older ones, in giving more attention to ascer- 

 tained facts, and often indeed lead to the discovery of facts which might 

 never have been attended to, if the necessities of the theorists to obtain 

 support for some favourite doctrine, had not excited them to the research. 



* A Geological Manual. By H. T. De La Bechc, F. R. S. F. G. S. Second 

 edition, corrected and enlarged, 12n:o. Treuttel and Wuitz, London and Paris. 



