THE LADIES’ MAGAZINE OF GARDENING. 
53 
coloured legs. This bird is not of such retiring habits as the preceding, 
as it sometimes ventures into gardens. It has a spring note which is 
remarkable, it being like “the whetting of a saw,” and so loud, as to be 
heard at a considerable distance. 
P. caudatus , Long-tailed Titmouse.—This is a remarkable little bird, 
as having a tail out of all proportion to the size of its body. The plumage 
is of various colours: crown white ; coverts of the wings black ; tail black 
and white ; and with a thick short bill. This species lives on the same 
kind of insect food as the others; frequents woods and hedges ; and makes 
a very curious nest resembling that of the common wren, though much 
narrower at the top than at the bottom. It is an ellipsis within and 
without, with a small entrance on one side near the top. The materials are 
chiefly green moss and other soft substances, such as hair, cobwebs, lichen, 
&c. The parents and their numerous young keep together for several months 
after leavingthe nest, and are constantly flying like darts from tree to tree in 
quest of food, and maintaining among themselves a low twittering con¬ 
versation, as if afraid of losing each other. The last of this genus is— 
P. biarmicus , the Bearded Titmouse.—This bird is in shape a good deal 
like the foregoing, but the tail is hardly so long; the head is grey, and 
there is a black tuft of feathers under each eye : the general plumage is 
red-yellow. This species is only found in some places ; it is much more 
carnivorous than any of the others, and, consequently, is a constant 
attendant in butchers’ shops when it can enter with impunity. 
In estimating the general character of this tribe of birds as a portion 
of animated nature, they must be considered as useful to mankind, by 
destroying certain tribes of insects, which, without their assistance, would 
become so numerous as to place in jeopardy some of our necessaries of life. 
They, therefore, should be (especially the little blue one) encouraged about 
gardens. Indeed, I would go so far as to advise that in building garden- 
walls, openings should be left for the accommodation of the tom-tits. 
I shall now say a few words on the genus Hirundo (the Swallow). 
This is a tribe of summer birds which are so familiar that they may be 
truly called inmates. They are all so well known as to need no description. 
H. rustica is the common swallow; and it now deserves its specific name 
much more than ever, for it is far more plentiful in the country than it is 
in towns; the new-fashioned ornamental chimney-pots so universally 
used have banished the poor sociable swallows from towns, to take up 
their abodes in the old-fashioned chimneys of cottages and farm-houses in 
the country. Another architectural improvement has also tended to banish 
swallows from modern buildings : instead of dripping eaves, we now have 
parapet walls, so that the open spaces under the eaves, which used to be 
