136 
allen’s naturalist’s library. 
Eggs. — From five to eight in number, sometimes as many as 
twelve being found. The eggs, as might be expected, are small 
editions of those of the Great Tit, but the reddish markings 
are much less developed, and are represented in many cases by 
a sprinkling of tiny dots, which are sometimes also collected at 
the large end of the egg, leaving the small end unspotted. 
Axis, o'6 inch ; diarn, o - £. 
THE EUROPEAN COAT-TIT. PARUS ATER. 
Parus ater, Linn., Syst. Nat., i., p. 341 (1766); Gadow, Cat. 
B. Brit. Mus., p. 40 (1883, pt.) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Br. 
B., pt. iv. (1887, pt.). 
Adult Hale. — General colour above slaty-blue, a little tinged 
with olive on the rump and upper tail-coverts ; lesser and 
median wing-coverts slaty-blue like the back ; the greater 
coverts dusky, externally washed with slaty-blue, and, like the 
median series, tipped with white, forming a double wing-bar; 
quills dusky-brown, externally edged with olive, the inner 
secondaries tipped with dingy white ; tail feathers dusky, 
washed with ashy-grey ; crown of head and bind-neck glossy 
blue-black, divided in the centre from the nape to the hind- 
neck by a broad patch of white ; lores, cheeks, and sides of 
face white, extending down the sides of the neck; entire 
throat black, spreading on to the sides of the upper breast ; 
breast and abdomen greyish -white, the sides of body and 
flanks, as well as the under tail-coverts, isabelline ; under wing- 
coverts and quill-lining white ; bill black ; feet leaden-grey ; 
iris hazel. Total length, 4-2 inches ; culmen, 0-35 ; wing, 2-45 ; 
tail, 1 75 ; tarsus, o'6. 
Adult Female. — Not to be distinguished from the male in 
colour, but the gloss on the head a little less marked. Total 
length, 4 - 2 inches; wing, 2’4. 
Young. — Similar to the adults, but yellow below ; a little 
more rufescent on the flanks ; the white sides of the face and 
nape-patch of the adults replaced by pale yellow ; the black of 
the head more dingy, and the black of the throat and chest 
represented in the young birds by a patch of dusky black on 
the throat only. 
Range in Great Britain. — An occasional visitor from the Con 
