, 208 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



woodland species, like the Tits and the Warblers, only the 

 more common kinds come, as a rule, within the ken of the 

 ordinary observer ; but it may well be doubted if any other 

 native bird of equal population has succeeded in maintaining 

 an incognito existence so long and so thoroughly as the 

 Marsh Tit has. The surest way to detect these tiny species 

 is by their call-notes ; a thorough knowledge of which is 

 invaluable to the ornithologist. The observer who trusts to 

 his eyes rather than to his ears will allow many a Marsh 

 Tit to pass by unnoticed ; for the unmistakable tzay, tzay, 

 tzay, may constantly he heard proclaiming its presence when 

 all attempts to get a clear view of the bird itself in the 

 thicket are unavailing. 



My own experience of the Marsh Tit in Scotland is 

 limited to the Tweed, Forth, and Spey districts, in all of 

 which I have found it breeding and resident. Hitherto the 

 Lothians seem to have been looked upon as its Scottish 

 stronghold ; but unquestionably they cannot compete with 

 Strathspey for this distinction. 



Before narrating my own observations on the species in 

 Strathspey, let me state what other writers have recorded of 

 it in respect of the " Moray " area. 



The first to detect it in the district appears to have been 

 Charles St. John, in whose " Natural History and Sport in 

 Moray" (ed. 1882, p. 16) we find it stated that the "Marsh 

 Titmouse (Parus palustris, L.) is numerous in the fir woods 

 during winter, forming part of the large flocks of birds which 

 are constantly passing in search of food, hanging on the 

 branches and prying into every crevice for insects or their 

 eggs and larvae." Then A. G. More, in his paper " On the 

 Distribution of Birds in Great Britain during the Nesting 

 Season," published in "The Ibis ' : for 1865, tells us it 

 extends to Fifeshire according to MacGillivray, and breeds 

 in Perthshire, occasionally in Aberdeenshire, " and even as 

 far north as Inverness (Mr. W. Dunbar)." It does not appear 

 to have been again noticed — at any rate I am not aware of 

 any further record — till I met with it in the Kingussie district 

 of Strathspey, in the autumn of 1889, as recorded in the 

 "Scottish Naturalist" for January 1891, and here shortly 

 repeated. St. John's observations were no doubt made much 



