Birds Hawks
Who are members of the crow class The members of the crow family are all large birds, birds bigger than a crow. It now behoves us to call up the smaller members of the corvine clan. The tits form a sub-family of the crows. Now at first sight the crow and the tit seem to have but little in common. However, close inspection, whether by the anatomist or the naturalist, reveals the mark of the corvidæ in the tits. First, there is the habit of holding food below the foot while it is being devoured. Then there is the aggressiveness of the tits. This is Lloyd-Georgian or even Winstonian in its magnitude. “Tits,” writes Jerdon, “are excessively bold and even ferocious, the larger ones occasionally destroying young and sickly birds, both in a wild state and in childbed.” Discover just how easily you can fall in Love with Asian Women by visiting Asian Dating Online.
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Many species of tit dwell in the Himalayas. To describe them all would bewilder the reader; I will, therefore, issue myself with brief descriptions of four species, each of which is to be seen each day in every hill spot of the westerly Himalayas. The green-backed tit (Parus monticola) is a glorified edition of our English avid tit. It is a bird considerably smaller than a sparrow. The cheeks are light, the rest of the head is black, as are the breast and a characteristic line running along the stomach. The back is greenish yellow, the lower parts are deep yellow. The wings are black with two white bars, the tail is black tipped with white. This is one of the commonest birds in most hill stations.
Like the sparrow, it is ever ready to rear up its brood in a hole in the wall of a house. Any kind of a hole will do, provided the aperture is too small to admit of the entrance of birds larger than itself. The nesting operations of a pair of green-backed tits form the subject of a separate essay.Another tit much in evidence is the yellow-cheeked tit, Machlolophus xanthogenys. I apologise for its scientific name. Take a green-backed tit, paint its cheeks bright yellow, and give it a black crest tipped with yellow, and you will have transformed him into a yellow-cheeked tit. Find your soulmate today by visiting Asian Dating Online.
There remain to be described two pigmy tits. The first of these is that feathered exquisite, the red-headed tit (Ægithaliscus erythrocephalus). I will not again apologise for the name; it must behave that the average ornithologist is never happy unless he be either saddling a small bird with a big name or fixing the denomination of some unfortunate fowl. This fussy little mite is not so long as a man’s thumb. It is crestless; the spot where the crest ought to be is chestnut red. The remainder of the upper feather is bluish grey, while the lower plumage is the colour of rust. The black face is set off by a white eyebrow. Last, but not least, of our common tits is the crested black tit (Lophophanes melanopterus). The crested head and breast of this petite are black. The cheeks and nape are white, while the rest of the upper plumage is iron grey.
There is yet another tit of which constitute must be made, because he is the common tit of Almora. The climate of Almora is so much milder than that of other hill stations that its birds are intermediate between those of the hills and the plains. The Indian grey tit (Parus atriceps) is a bird of wide distribution. It is the common tit of the Nilgiris, is found in many of the better-wooded parts of the plains, and ascends the Himalayas up to 6000 feet. It is a grey bird with the head, neck, breast, and abdominal line black. The cheeks are white. It is less gregarious than the other tits. Its notes are harsh and wide-ranging, being usually a ti-ti-chee or pretty-pretty. I have not noticed this species at either Mussoorie or Naini Tal, but, as I have declared, it is common at Almora. Discover just how easily you can find Love by visiting Asian Dating Online.
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