. An illustrated manual of British birds . this manner. Its usual notein spring resembles the sound produced by sharpening a saw with afile, and may be heard at a considerable distance ; its call-note is alow zee; and some individuals display great power of imitatingother birds. Adult male : crown of the head bluish-black; a band of the samecolour descends each side of the neck, behind the white cheeksand ear-coverts ; on the nape is a small spot of whitish, passing intoyellowish-olive which pervades the mantle; wing-coverts bluish-grey, with white tips which form a transverse bar; quills dark
. An illustrated manual of British birds . this manner. Its usual notein spring resembles the sound produced by sharpening a saw with afile, and may be heard at a considerable distance ; its call-note is alow zee; and some individuals display great power of imitatingother birds. Adult male : crown of the head bluish-black; a band of the samecolour descends each side of the neck, behind the white cheeksand ear-coverts ; on the nape is a small spot of whitish, passing intoyellowish-olive which pervades the mantle; wing-coverts bluish-grey, with white tips which form a transverse bar; quills darkbrown with paler margins ; tail-feathers slate-grey, the outer pairtipped and margined with white; chin, throat, and a stripe downthe centre of the breast to the vent, black; sides and flanks dullsulphur-yellow; bill black; legs and feet lead-colour. Length5-75 in. ; wing to the tip of 4th and longest primary 3 in. Thefemale is duller in colour than the male ; the young have a tingeof yellow on the cheeks. PAKID.+.. %%,>4>>/ ) :. THE COAL-TITMOUSE. Parus ater, Linnreus. In the Coal-Titmouse, as in the Long-tailed Titmouse, there aresuccessive variations, the extremes of which become, in the opinionof some ornithologists, entitled to specific distinction. x\s Parusbritannicus, Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser have separated our race fromthat of the Continent, because the upper back is olive-brown in theBritish bird, and slate-grey in the Continental form ; but, while Iadmit that a difference in tint is often recognizable, there are inter-gradations, especially noticeable in specimens from the old pine-forests of Scotland. Examples from Norfolk, indistinguishable fromthose of the Continent, may, of course, be of foreign parentage ;and so may specimens in the British Museum, from Perthshire,which are identical with birds from the Vosges, although less purelygrey than those from Japan. Against the migration-hypothesismust be set the experience of Mr. Gurney, jun., and Mr. Booth,
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookidillustra, booksubjectbirds
