* 5 ° 
ALLEN’S NATURALIST’S LIBRARY. 
Young. Duller than the adults, and wanting the rose-colour, 
the entire back being black, and the under-parts ashy-white- 
on each side of the crown a dusky band J 
, Raa S e ia Great Britain — Purely an accidental visitor from the 
Continent. More than one example has been said to have been 
seen, in company with our own British species, but such evi- 
dence is absolutely unreliable, for we can confidently assert 
that it is almost impossible to distinguish the two birds on a 
tiee, as we have ourselves verified by shooting both species in 
winter on the Continent. 
Kange outside tlie Eritisli Isles — An inhabitant of Northern Eu- 
rope below the Arctic Circle, and ranging into Central Europe in 
w intei. the birds of Russia and Siberia have longer tails 
■md specimens from high latitudes are purer in colour, but we 
■' •neve that it is virtually the same species from Scandinavia 
to Kamtschatka, and the occurrence of the White-headed Long- 
tailed Pit in the northern island of Japan is of peculiar interest 
as showing the affinity of the Avi-fauna of this island to that of 
Siberia, the southern islands having a resident species, ^ E tri ■ 
virgatus . 
Habits. These appear to be the same as those of our British 
bird. 
Nest — Like that of PE. vagans. 
Eggs. —Not to be distinguished from those of sE. vagans 
THE REEDLINGS. FAMILY PAN UR I DHL 
This family contains but a single genus. 
Panurus , Koch, Syst. Baier. Zool., p. 202 (1816). 
Type, P. biarmicus (Linn.). 
These curious little birds have been called “ Bearded Tits ’• 
but it is questionable whether they are Farida at all. Some 
naturalists have even considered them to be an aberrant kind 
of Bunting. They have not the feathered nostril of the 
'Pits, but rather an open nostril, oval, not rounded, with a 
covering skin or operculum, which is absent in the Paridce. 
But the most characteristic feature of the genus Panurus is it-; 
plumage, which is unlike that of any Patearctic Tit, but which 
closely resembles that of the Reed-birds of the Lower Hima- 
layas and China, the genera Paradoxornis , Ckoloniis, See. It is 
