WILLOW-TITMOUSE. 1 39 



are white, the back is sandy brown with an oHve tinge, and the 

 rump browner. The wings and tail are greyish, and there is 

 no clear bar on the former, a further distinction from the Coal- 

 Tit. The under parts are greyish white, shading into buff on 

 the flanks. As a rule the upper and under surfaces are more 

 sharply defined than in the Willow-Tit. The bill is black, the 

 legs lead-coloured, and the irides very dark brown. The sexes 

 are alike and seasonal changes are not striking ; the young are 

 duller. Length, 4-5 ins. Wing, 2*45 ins. Tarsus, -55 in. 



Willow-Titmouse. Parus borealis Selys-Longchamps. 



The recognition within recent years of the Willow-Tit as a 

 British bird has not only led to a more careful study of the 

 habits of the Marsh-Tir, but has caused us to revise our ideas 

 of its distribution ; this is further complicated by the fact 

 that the British Willow-Tit, P. b. kleiiischmidti Hellmayr, 

 differs from the typical borealis of Scandinavia and northern 

 Russia. Systematists at first associated the bird with the 

 American atricapillus, but it is now considered an insular sub- 

 species of borealis. The Scandinavian bird was obtained in 

 Gloucestershire in 1907, and some were seen in 1908 ; probably 

 it has been overlooked on other occasions. In my note-book 

 for 1893 I have a short description of a bird I saw in Cheshire, 

 distinctly slate-grey on the back, which at the time I thought 

 approached P. borealis^ though I had then no knowledge of the 

 Willow-Tit, nor had I seen the bird in Norway. Since then I 

 found both P. borealis and the Scandinavian P. palustris 

 between the Sogne Fjord and Molde, and experienced no 

 difficulty in recognising them in the field. The Northern 

 Willow-Tit is not only a much greyer bird than the British 

 Willow-Tit, but the white edges to the secondaries often form a 

 distinctive patch. 



The British Willow-Tit is found throughout England, but 



