378 Annals of the South African Museum. 



and substitutes the later Z ' . swidevaUi of Hartlaub. On reference 

 to Swainson's original description it does not appear to be anything 

 but thoroughly applicable to the Pale White-eye, and it would 

 certainly have been a species which Burchell, who collected 

 Swainson's types, would have been likely to meet w r ith. 



177. PARUS AFER Gin. 



177A. PARUS CINERASCENS Vieill. 



177s. PARUS CINERASCENS PARVIROSTRIS Shelley. 



Mr. Sharpe (Ibis, 1904, p. 342) states that there are two distinct 

 Tits which have been hitherto confounded under the name of Parus 

 afar. The distinctness of these two forms is clearly pointed out by 

 Levaillant, who figures both of them. In the neighbourhood 

 of Cape Town and in the south-western part of the Colony is 

 to l)e found Levaillant's "Mesange brune," a bird with a distinctly 

 brown back and pale fawn under-parts. It is described on page 167, 

 and figured on plate 139, fig. 2 (err. pro fig. 1) of the 3rd vol. 

 of the Oiseau d'Afrique, and is identical with the Black-breasted 

 Titmouse of Latham, on which Gmelin founded his Parus afer. 

 The British Museum contains examples of this species from near 

 Cape Town, and a good series from Deelfontein in the Karoo, 

 while in the South African Museum are to be found speci- 

 mens from Malmesbury, Gouda (i.e., Porterville Eoad Station), and 

 Hanover. 



The Grey Tit was first discovered by Levaillant, and described 

 by him (Ois. d'Afr. iii. p. 164, pi. 138, fig. 1) as the Mesange 

 Grisette (not, as stated by Sharpe, Mesange gris a joue blanche, 

 which is the Indian Parus cinereus). It is a blue-grey bird above 

 and below, with the white edges to the wing and tail quills much 

 more strongly marked, and is found from the Orange Eiver north- 

 wards to Nyasaland, and is well represented in the British Museum. 

 There is no record, so far as I am aware, of its occurrence in 

 the eastern half of the Colony or in Natal, and I suspect that 

 Levaillant really obtained his bird on the Orange Eiver during 

 his northern journey, and not, as he states, at Camdeboo, which 

 is now known as the Somerset East district of Cape Colony. The 

 correct name for the Grey Tit is P. cineresceus of Vieillot, founded 

 on Levaillant's description. Shelley (B. Afr. ii. p. 243) proposes 

 to call a geographical race of this latter species from Mashonaland 

 and Nyasaland Parus parvirostris ; it is distinguished by its much 

 smaller bill, though resembling the typical form in plumage. 



