ambition; and it may be questioned whether, as far as there has been any feeling in operation besides that of a sense of duty, the great exertions which are made in the service of the country are not stimulated less by the expectation of pecuniary reward, than by the hope of receiving one of these titles of honour which shall descend to a man's posterity. They cost nothing; and hence it is that titles of honour have been called the cheap defence of nations.' Whoever wishes to study this subject in all its details will do well to resort to two great works: one, the late Reports of the Lords' Committees on the dignity of the Peerage the other, the large treatise on Titles of Honour,' by the learned Selden. The latter was first printed in 4to., 1614; again, with large additions, folio, 1631. TITMICE, Paride, a natural family of Perching Birds. [INSESSORES.]

Linnæus, in his last edition of the Systema Naturæ, placed the genus Parus between Pipra and Hirundo, in his order

Passeres.

Latham arranges it also at the end of the same order. Pennant too gives it a place in the Passerine section, between the Warblers and the Swallows.

M. de Lacepède places it immediately before the Larks; M. Duméril in the eighth family of the Passeres (Subulirostres, or Raphioramphes), in company with the Manakins, Larks, and Bec-fins; M. Meyer, in the third suborder (Subulata) of his fifth order (Oscines), between Alauda and Regulus; Illiger, at the head of the Passerini, among the Ambulatores, immediately before Alauda; Cuvier, among the Conirostres, directly after the Larks; Vieillot, in the family of Egithales in the tribe Anisodactyli; Temminck, in the order Granivores, between the Larks and Buntings; and Latreille in the family Conirostres, also between the Larks and the Buntings. Selby arranges it between the same two forms.

Mr. Vigors places the genus Parus among the Pipride, in his order DENTIROSTRES. In his paper On the Natural Affinities that connect the Orders and Families of Birds, he remarks that the true Wrens of the Sylviade, a family which in his arrangement immediately precedes the PIPRIDE, display in their general appearance and habits so close a similarity to Parus, Linn., the Titmouse of our naturalists, that we may at once acknowledge the affinity between the latter family and that of Pipride, upon which he enters by means of the Pari. And who is there,' he asks, that has not been attracted by the interesting manners of both these familiar visitors of our domestic haunts, and at the same time has not been struck with their resemblance? The Penduline Titmouse, Parus pendulinus, Linn., with its bill longer and more slender than that of the Pari in general, seems to him to be the connecting link between the families. That species, he observes, is immediately met by the genus Tyrunnulus of M. Vieillot, which in the name of Roitelet Mesange (Titmouse-Wren), conferred by Buffon on the American species of which it is composed, happily illustrates the affinity which he has pointed out. It is pleasing, he remarks, to trace in groups which bear a general affinity to each other in their more essential characters, an affinity also in less consequential particulars, and he calls attention to the fact that this is the case in the conterminous groups of Wrens and Titmice with respect to their mode of nidification; for the greater portion of both make their nests in holes of trees, but those groups which most nearly approach each other, viz., Regulus, Tyrannulus, and Parus pendulinus, suspend theirs from the branches, leaving the orifice at the centre, and interlacing the materials of which it is composed with corresponding ingenuity and elegance. Mr. Vigors goes on to remind his readers that the affinity between these birds has been acknowledged by scientific as well as by common observers; and yet the former have generally ranked the Pari in a different tribe, and some indeed have even arranged them in a different order from the Sylviada, in consequence of their more conical bill and the absence of the mandibular notch. A rigid deference to those particulars which form the characteristics of the conterminous subdivisions would, he admits, certainly exclude the Pari from the tribe of Dentirostres; but the nature of their food, which consists chiefly of insects, and the similarity of their habits, give them, he thinks, a more natural connection with the families among which he has placed them, than

Linn. Trans.,' vol. xiv.

with the hard-billed and granivorous birds, where they are generally stationed. Here,' says Mr. Vigors in continuation, it may also be observed that they form part of one of the extreme families of the tribe, and are immediately connected with a group of the preceding family of the Sylviade, which passes on to the Conirostres, the succeeding subdivision of the order. They thus are brought into contact with the tribe to which the strength and the conical structure of their bill indicates a conformity; while at the same time they maintain their station among the groups where their manners and general economy would naturally place them. The Pari, which thus introduce us into the present family, lead us on to the more typical groups of the Linnean Pipre, with which they bear an acknowledged affinity in manners and general appearance. The genus Pardalotus, Vieill., which is the representative of the latter group in Australasia, appears to connect these two allied groups of the Old and the New World, by exhibiting the nearly divided foot of the one, and the partially curved bill of the other. Here come in the RUPICOLA, Briss., and PHIBALURA, Vieill. And here, as I have already observed, when speaking of the Thrushes [MERULIDE, vol. xv., p. 121], I apprehend that all those groups will be found to assemble, which, connected with Ampelis, Linn., are generally denominated Berry-eaters and Chatterers ; such as Bombycilla, Briss., the true Ampelis of authors, Casmarhinchus, Temm., and Procnias, Ill. To these the genus Querula of M. Vieillot may, I think, be added. This group, the type of which is the Muscicapa rubricollis of Gmelin, is strongly allied by its bill to the foregoing genera, while its habits equally ally it to the family of MusCICAPIDA, which follows. The interval between the present groups and those of the Pari, where we entered on the family, appears to be filled up by a race of birds peculiar to New Holland, and hitherto uncharacterized, of which the Muscicapa pectoralis, Lath., is the type. These, uniting many external characters, at least, both of the Berry-eaters and Fly-catchers, exhibit also in general appearance a considerable resemblance to the Pari, and will be found, I conjecture, to be the connecting bond between all these groups. The affinity between this last family of the tribe and the Muscicapide, which first met our attention as we entered it, has already been observed when I spoke of the separation of the broad-billed Chatterers from the Thrushes. And thus equally, as in the former tribe, we may recognise the completion of a circular succession of affinities between all the families of the Dentirostres." The uncharacterized group above alluded to was afterwards formed into the genus Pachycephala, Sw.

Mr. Swainson (Classification of Birds) enters among the Titmice by the American genus Seiurus, remarkable for the motion of its tail. One species, Seiurus aquaticus, Sw., frequents the sides of streams and runs upon the ground, whilst another, S. aurocapillus, Sw., is, he observes, confined to damp woods and runs along the low branches of trees. Here Mr. Swainson sees a change of economy, which, he says, plainly shows that nature has assumed a new form; and as the habit of running along branches of trees is the chief faculty of the Scansorial birds, or of their representatives, so, he remarks, we may suppose that the group next in succession to the Motacillince would possess something of the same characters. These he finds manifested in the genus Accentor, and he adverts to an unpublished notice which he heard read at a meeting of the Linnean Society of London, relating to the habits of an Accentor which was killed near one of the public buildings at Oxford, and which was seen to climb so adroitly round the steep abutments of those buildings as to baffle for a considerable time the aim of the person who shot it. He also states that he has seen the common Hedge-sparrow frequently hop along the whole length of a strong oblique branch, pecking into the crevices of the bark so as to remind the observer of a scansorial creeper, or of a Woodpecker: and he makes the Titmice a subfamily of the SYLVIADE, with the genera and subgenera which will be found in that article. [Vol. xxiii., p. 441.]

6

He remarks that this subfamily may be said to commence with the genus Accentor, which stands at the confines of that group which contains the most scansorial warblers in the family of the Sylviada. The short, stout, and nearly conic bills of these active little climbers,' says Mr. Swainson, are admirably adapted for pecking into the bark of buds, and thus extracting the small insects

6

6

L'Esté es bois la mesange bleue est,

Et nous vient voir en Hyver et Autonne,
Le doux chanter d'icelle plaisir donne
A tout esprit, à qui l'escouter plaist.'

We proceed to illustrate the present article by the less familiar Long-tailed Titmouse, Bearded Titmouse, and Penduline Titmouse.

Long-tailed Titmouse. Description.-Male.-Head, neck, throat, and breast pure white; upper part and centre of the back, rump, and the six middle tail-feathers deep black; scapulars reddish; belly, sides, and abdomen reddish white; quills black; greater wing-coverts bordered with pure white; lateral tail-feathers white on their external barbs and at their end; tail very long and wedge-shaped. Length five

inches seven or eight lines.

Female.-A large black band above the eyes, which is prolonged upon the nape, and proceeds to unite itself with the black of the upper part of the back. Young-Small black spots on the cheeks and brown spots on the breast: black of the back not so decided. (Temm.)

N.B. Mr. Gould remarks that the female does not differ from the male in colouring, and in the Birds of Europe both are represented with the black band above the eyes.

This is the Pendolino, Paronzino, Codibugnolo, and Paglia in culo of the Italians; Mésange à la longue queue and Perd sa queue of the French; Langschwänzige Meise, Schwanzmeise, and Belzmeise Pfannenstiel of the Germans; Staartmees of the Netherlanders; Alhtita of the Swedes; Jenaga of the Japanese; Bottle Tit, Bottle Tom, Long-tailed Farmer, Long-tail Mag, Long-tail Pie, Poke Pudding, Huckmuck, and Mum-ruffin, of the modern British; and Y Benloyn gnyffonhir of the antient British.

Geographical Distribution.-Siberia, Russia, Japan. The whole of Europe. England, Scotland (near Edinburgh at least), and Ireland.

Habits, Food, &c.-Insects, their larvæ and eggs, form the food of these pretty little birds. When White says that the Long-tailed Titmouse never retreats for succour in the severest seasons to houses and their neighbourhood, he must not be supposed to mean that the bird avoids the haunts of men. We have seen in a nursery-garden in Middlesex a whole family of them within a few yards of the nursery-man's cottage, and close to his greenhouse, which visitors were constantly entering, and we have found its exquisitely wrought nest in a Silver Fir about eight feet high, in a pleasure-ground in the same county, little more than a hundred yards from the house. Pennant well describes its appearance in flight when, after stating that the young follow the parents the whole winter, he says, 'from the slimness of their bodies, and great length of tail, they appear, while flying, like so many darts cutting the air. They are often seen passing through our gardens, going progressively from tree to tree, as if on their road to some other place, never making any halt.' Yarrell is equally happy in describing the nest and manners of this interesting little bird. The nest of this species,' says he, is another example of ingenious con

The

Nest of Long-tailed Titmouse. struction, combining beauty of appearance with security and warmth. In shape it is nearly oval, with one small enters. I have never seen more than one hole. hole in the upper part of the side by which the bird outside of this nest sparkles with silver-coloured lichens adhering to a firm texture of moss and wool, the inside profusely lined with soft feathers. The nest is generally placed in the middle of a thick bush, and so firmly fixed, that it is mostly found necessary to cut out the portion of the bush containing it, if desirous of preserving the the female is known to be the nest-maker, and to have natural appearance and form of the nest. In this species, been occupied for a fortnight to three weeks in completing her habitation. In this she deposits from ten to twelve eggs; but a larger number are occasionally found: they are small and white, with a few pale red specks, frequently quite plain, measuring seven lines in length, and five lines in breadth. The young family of the year keep company with the parent birds during their first autumn and winter, and generally crowd close together on the same branch at roosting-time, looking, when thus huddled up, like a shapeless lump of feathers only. These birds have several together; one of these call-notes is soft and scarcely notes, on the sound of which they assemble and keep

Long-tailed Titmouse, Male and Female. (Gould.)

andible; a second is a louder chirp or twitter, and a third is of a hoarser kind.'

In the Portraits d'Oyseaux the qualities of this species are thus summed up :

'Ceste Mesange est à la longue queue Oyseau petit, comme est le Roytelet: Du demeurant, inconstant, et follet,

Par son hault chant sa voix est bien cogneue.' The Bearded Titmouse. Description.-Male.-Black between the bill and the eye, and these black feathers are very long and prolonged on each side on the lateral part of the neck; head and occiput bluish ash; throat and front of the neck pure white, which blends on the breast and the middle of the belly into a rosy hue; nape, back, rump, feathers of the middle of the tail and sides fine rust-colour; great coverts of the wings deep black, bordered with deep rusty on the external barb, and reddish white on the internal barb; quills bordered with white; feathers of the under part of the tail deep black; lateral tail-feathers bordered and terminated with grey; tail long, much graduated; bill and iris fine yellow. Length 6 inches and 2 or 3 lines.

Female. No black moustaches; throat and front of the neck tarnished white; upper parts of the head and body rusty, shaded with brown; on the middle of the back some longitudinal black spots; under tail-coverts bright rusty. Young at their leaving the nest, and before their first walt, with nearly the whole of the plumage of very bright reddish; a good deal of black on the external barbs of the quils and tail-feathers; on the middle of the back a very rge space of deep black. After the first moult nothing the deep black of the back remains but some longitudinal spots. Varieties.-More or less marked with white or whitish; the colours of the plumage often feebly developed. (Temm.) This is the Mésange Barbue ou Moustache of the French; Birtmeise of the Germans; Least Butcher-Bird of Edwards; red Pheasant (provincial) of the modern British, and I Barfog of the Welsh.

N.B. M. Temminck remarks that the Zahnschäblige Bertmeise of Brehm is a species or subspecies founded only on individuals which have been long caged, such as may be seen in the Dutch markets, where numbers are d. Some of these captives come to London, where they ay be bought for some four or five shillings a pair. The and bill in the living bird are of a delicate orangecolour.

Geographical Distribution.-The north of Europe, Engand, Sweden; Asia, on the shores of the Caspian Sea; noThere so abundant as in Holland; accidentally, on passage, France. (Temm.) In the third part of the second edition of his Manuel, M. Temminck says, that in Italy it s as common in the marshes of Ostia, as in those of Holand near Amsterdam. As to Sweden, Pennant also states that it is rarely found there; but neither Müller, Brisson, nor Nilsson notices it in that locality. Mr. Yarrell gives the best summary known to us of the recorded distribution of the species in the British Islands South and west of London the Bearded Tit has been found in Surrey about bome ponds near Godalming; in Sussex near Winchelsea; and on the banks of the Thames from London upwards as far as Oxford. Pennant says it has been taken near Gloucester. In Cornwall, as I learn from Mr. Rodd, it is condered very rare; a single specimen was obtained in the neighbourhood of Helston, which is now in the collection made by the late Humphrey Grylls, Esq. It is not included in the catalogue of the Birds of Shropshire and North Wales, lately published in the "Annals of Natural History" by my friend Mr. Thomas Eyton; but is said to have been taken in Lancashire; and a single specimen is recorded as Irish by Mr. Thompson, on the authority of Mr. W. S. Wall, a bird-preserver in Dublin, which example was received from the banks of the Shannon. Eastward from London the Bearded Tit inhabits the various reed-beds on the banks of the Thames, both in Kent and Essex. It is found also in Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Lincolnshire, but has not been traced in this country north of the Humber.'

Habits, Food, &c.-Dr. Leach had observed the fondness of this species for marshy and reedy spots, the shape of its open cup-shaped nest placed on the ground, and the nature of its food-seeds, insects and their larvæ, and small

shelled snails. He had also remarked that the sides of the stomach in this bird were muscular and much thickened, forming a gizzard which the true tits do not possess; and that this structure of the stomach afforded the power of breaking down the shells of the testaceous mollusks-Succinea amphibia and Pupa muscorum-many of which had been found comminuted therein. Still, from the comparative rarity of this bird in Britain, and the impervious nature of its haunts, its habits were comparatively little known. Mr. Hoy and Mr. Dykes have supplied much interesting information on this head.

The former states that the Bearded Tit begins building towards the end of April, and that the nest is composed on the outside of dead leaves of the reed and sedge, intermixed with a few pieces of grass, and lined with the top of the reed. He describes it as generally placed in a tuft of coarse grass or rushes near the ground, on the margin of the dikes, in the fens; and sometimes as fixed among the reeds that are broken down, but never suspended between the stems. Their food, he says, is principally the seed of the reed, and so intent were they on their search for it, that he had taken them with a bird-limed twig attached to a fishing-rod. When alarmed by any sudden noise, or the passing of a hawk, they uttered their shrill musical notes, and concealed themselves among the thick bottoms of the reeds, but they soon resumed their station, climbing the upright stems with the greatest facility.

Mr. Dykes had an opportunity of examining three specimens, and he found their crops completely filled with the Succinea amphibia in a perfect state, the shells unbroken and singularly closely packed together. The crop of one, not larger than a hazel nut, contained twenty Succineæ, some of them of a good size, and four Pupa muscorum, with the shells also entire. The stomach was full of small fragments of shell, in a greater or less degree of decomposition. Numerous sharp angular fragments of quartz which had been swallowed had with the action of the stomach effected the comminution of the shells.

Two nests obtained by Mr. Yarrell from the parish of Horsey, were sustained only an inch or two above the ground by the strength of the stems of the coarse grass on which they were fixed. Each was composed entirely of dried bents, the finer ones forming the lining; others increasing in substance made up the exterior. Mr. Yarrell states the number of eggs at from four to six, rather smaller than those of the Great Titmouse, and less pointed; eight lines and a half long by six lines and a half in breadth, white, and sparingly marked with pale red lines or scratches. (British Birds.)