172 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



therefore, to read Mr R I. Pocock's comment in The Field 

 (loth April 1920, p. 523), in connection with the addition of an 

 Inverness-shire Wild Cat to the collections in the Zoological 

 Ciardens, Regent's Park, that he had " never seen a Wild Cat, alive 

 or dead, from the Grampians that showed the least trace of 

 impurity of lineage." This entirely agrees with our own opinion, for 

 no trace of cross-breeding has been apparent in any of the Wild 

 Cats received by the Royal Scottish Museum from the Highlands 

 of Scotland during many years. 



Distribution of Scottish Crested Tit. In an article in 

 The Fiehi (7th February 1920, p. 172) on the Scottish Crested 

 Tit, the familiar statement was made by Mr E. E. Pettitt that 

 this Scottish race "appears to be entirely restricted to the basin of 

 the Spey, and is to be found there, and nowhere else, winter and 

 summer alike." An interesting response to this statement was 

 made in a subsequent number (6th March, p. 331) by Mr Murdoch 

 Matheson, who finds that, so far from being confined to the 

 Spey valley, the Scottish Crested Tit "is resident and nests in 

 the old fir and pine woods of both Achnacarry and Glengarry." 

 The writer continues : " I have found one or two nests yearly in 

 Glengarry for the last thirty years. The nest is always in an 

 old fir tree, and some of the eggs resemble those of the Tree- 

 creeper ; others hardly different from those of the Coal Tit ; the 

 usual number being from seven to nine. The time of nesting is 

 mid-May. During winter the Crested Tit travels about in company 

 with the Long-tailed and other Tits, and often a pair of Tree- 

 creepers. They are then continually on the move, and visit the 

 birch woods as well as the pines, sometimes disappearing for days. 

 They often alight on the ground among the heather. In April they 

 all disperse in pairs ; but although other Tits nest wherever there 

 is any sort of wood, the Crested Tit during the nesting season is 

 entirely confined to the old Scotch fir forests. They do not nest 

 in plantations even sixty years old. I think it is a very local bird, 

 and does not extend its range or increase in number." Mr Pettitt, 

 in a later reference to the above note, suggests {The Field, 27th 

 March 1920) that the Glengarry colony may be an isolated colony, 

 or may prove to be the western outpost of a more extensive 

 breeding area than has hitherto been suspected. The size of the 

 clutches found in Glengarry show that there the Tits are unusually 

 prolific, for the average clutch in the Spey valley is much smaller 

 than the seven to nine recorded by Mr Matheson, nine being most 

 unlikely to be met with. In a reply to Mr Pettitt, Mr Matheson 



