T09 



THE BLUE TITMOUSE. 



Parus c.eruleus, Linnffius. 



The Blue Titmouse is one of the best known of British birds, 

 and is generally distributed throughout the greater part of our 

 islands. In Scotland, however, it does not appear to reach the 

 Outer Hebrides, though found in Jura, Mull, &c. ; while it is very 

 local in the north-west, resident in Sutherland and Caithness, and 

 only a wanderer to the Orkneys and Shetlands. In Ireland it is the 

 commonest of the genus. In autumn considerable numbers of Blue 

 and Great Tits arrive on our east coast ; and still larger flocks pass 

 by Heligoland. 



In Norway the Blue Titmouse breeds as far north as lat. 64°, but 

 further east its range does not extend beyond 61^ N., nor is the bird 

 found in Russia beyond the Ural Mountains. It is generally dis- 

 tributed over the remainder of Europe, except in some of the Greek 

 islands, and is common in Asia Minor ; but in Persia it is replaced 

 by P. persitits^ a much paler bird, with broader white margins to the 

 greater wing-coverts. Continental specimens of the Blue Titmouse 

 are brighter than those of our islands, and attain the maximum of 

 brilliancy in the south of Spain ; while on the other side of the 

 Mediterranean, in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, we find P. ultra- 

 7nariniis, and in the Canaries the insular form P. teneriffm : birds 



