PARUS. 57 
Nearctic regions as well as to the Himalayas, Java, and West Africa, the South- 
African birds being barely separable as Melaniparus. No form of the family Paride is 
known from South America. 
1. Parus meridionalis. 
Parus meridionalis, Scl. P. Z. 8. 1856, p. 293°, 1857, p. 81°, 1858, p. 299°, 1859, p. 363%; Baird, 
Rev. Am. B. i. p. 81°; Sumichrast, Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H.i. p. 544°; Salv. Cat. Strickl. 
Col. p. 637 
Supra cinereus; alis et cauda nigricantibus brunnescenti-cinereo limbatis; pileo toto cum nucha, gutture 
et cervice antica nigris, genis et capitis lateribus albis; abdomine cinereo brunnescenti tincto ; pectore et 
ventre medio albidis; rostro nigro; pedibus plumbeis. Long. tota 4°8, ale 2°5, caude 2°3, rostri a 
rictu 0°5, tarsi 0°75. (Descr. exempl. ex Mexico. Mus. nostr.) 
Hab. Mexico (T. Mann"), El Jacale (Sallé'), La Parada (Boucard*), Jalapa (de Oca’), 
Moyoapam near Orizaba, 8200 feet (Suwmichrast®), Tierra fria (le Strange). 
This southern Tit, which has a general resemblance to the North-American Parus 
atricapillus, is only found, so far as we yet know, in the higher mountains of Southern 
Mexico, whence a specimen was sent to Strickland in 18447, where it was subse- 
quently rediscovered by M. Sallé 1, and where several other collectors have met with it. 
Mr. Sclater, who described M. Sallé’s specimens !, afterwards? made a close com- 
parison between itand P. atricapilius, which he was unable to do (for want of spe- 
cimens) in his first notice of it. He was then able to point out that P. meridionalis 
is a fairly well-defined species; and this view has been confirmed by subsequent 
writers, who have left it full specific rank whilst placing several northern forms of 
P. atricapillus as “varieties” of that bird. The real affinity of P. meridionalis, as 
indicated by the absence of white edging to the feathers of the wings and tail, and 
its short tail, seems to be with P. carolinensis, a species which is found in the Southern 
States, and therefore geographically its nearest neighbour. 
We have no account of the habits of P. meridionalis in Mexico; but it doubtless 
resembles in this respect most other Pari. Though only known as an inhabitant of 
Southern Mexico, we should not be surprised to hear of its being found in the Altos of 
Guatemala towards the frontier of the State of Chiapas. 
PSALTRIPARUS. 
Psaltriparus, Bonaparte, Compt. Rend. xxxi. p. 478 (1850). (Type P. personatus, Bp., =Parus 
melanotis, Hartl.) 
This small genus contains three species, of which two are so closely allied as to be 
deemed geographical varieties of one another by recent writers on North-American 
birds; the third is well defined and is apparently exclusively found in Mexico and 
Guatemala, being the sole representative of the Paride in the latter country. The 
BIOL. CENTR.-AMER., Zool., Aves, Vol. 1, Fed. 1880. 8 
