THE MARSH TITMOUSE IN STRATHSPEY 211 



Dr. R. B. Sharpe to compare it with the specimens in the 

 British Museum. This he kindly did, and replied that my 

 bird is referable to the British form, to which Stejneger 

 has given the name of Parus palustris dresseri (Dr. Sharpe 

 designates it shortly Parus dresseri). It is, he adds, a little 

 greyer, however, than examples from the south of England. 



When sending Dr. Sharpe the Marsh Tit, I also enclosed 

 a couple of Cole Tits from the pine woods of Strathspey, — 

 one obtained at Castle Grant on 4th September, immediately 

 after the autumn moult ; the other in Rothiemurchus on 1 ith 

 May, — and he pronounces both to be true Parus britannicus. 

 Having been informed that Professor Newton possessed a 

 Cole Tit, obtained by Wolley in the neighbouring forest of 

 Dulnan, which approximated closely to the Continental form, 

 — the typical Parus ater of Linnaeus, — I wrote to him on 

 the subject, and was kindly favoured with a sight of the 

 specimen, which was killed in the beginning of May 1851. 

 It agrees exactly with my Spey skins. When sending this 

 Dulnan specimen, Professor Newton remarks that it is " inter- 

 mediate " between ordinary English examples and those from 

 the Continent : an observation which he made twenty years 

 ago, and was able to confirm on the day he wrote me, after 

 a comparison with Cambridgeshire specimens. While I write, 

 I have before me two examples procured in Peeblesshire 

 (near West Linton) in September, for which I am indebted 

 to Messrs. T. G. and D. G. Laidlaw. One of these in no 

 way differs from the Spey specimens ; and the other is only 

 very slightly more dingy. 



Without a large series of specimens from various districts 

 for comparison, it would be rash to jump to the conclusion 

 that Scotch Marsh and Cole Tits are always, or even generally, 

 perceptibly greyer than those from England. Still, I think 

 it is a fair inference to draw from the facts I have stated that 

 in all probability the tendency on the part of these birds is 

 to assume a lighter aspect as we proceed northwards ; so that 

 those from the pine woods of Scotland (of the Highlands in 

 particular) can without much difficulty be distinguished, when 

 in good plumage, from those of the south of England. 



My main object, however, in referring to these Spey 

 specimens, is to show that they arc referable to the British 



