The great Titmoufe or Ox-Eye, Fringillago feu Parus
major.
Numb. XLVI.
IT S Length from the tip of the Bill to the end of the Tail is fix Inches
; Breadth, when the Wings are extended, nine Inches and a
quarter; weight eleven Drams; its Bill is ftreight, black, half an Inch
long, and of a moderate thicknefs; both Mandibles of equal Length;
the Tongue broad, ending in four Filaments; the Feet of a lead or
blue Colour; the Head and Chin black. From the corners of the Mouth
on each fide, below the Eyes, a broad white Line or Spot paifing backward
takes up the Cheeks; on the hinder part of the Head is a white
Line which feparates the black of the Head from the yellow of the Neck.
The Neck, Shoulders, and middle of the Back are of a yellowiih green;
the Rump is blue; the Breaft, Belly and Thighs are yellow; yet the
lower or hindermoft part of the Belly white ; a broad black Line, reaching
from the Throat to the Vent, divides the Breaft and Belly in twain.
The quill Feathers of the Wings are in number eighteen; the outermoft
little ones are dusky, with white Tips, or Tips partly white, partly blue;
the outer Edges of thofe next the Body are green. Of the covert Feathers
of the firft Row, thofe that are about the middle of the Wing, with
their whitiih Tips, make a tranfverfe whitiih Line; the fmaller covert
Feathers of the Wings are blue; the tail is about two Inches and a half
long, compounded of twelve Feathers, the exterior Vanes of all which,
except the outermoft, are blue or darkafh colour’d, the interior black,
the outermoft have their exterior Vanes and Tips of white. Thefe Birds
feed alfo on Caterpillars and the Eggs of thofe Infe&s which infeft the
Fruit-Trees.