THE CRESTED TITMOUSE 



PARUS CRISTATUS SC'OTICUS 



Mksange huppee (French) ; Haubenmeise {German) ; 

 CiNGiA COL ciUFFO (Italian). 



A SMALL iierson indeed, and but little known even amongst 

 those who penetrate to his nesting site, is the Crested Tit- 

 mouse. He is one of the few, the very few, birds that are 

 found only in one or two favoured situations in the High- 

 lands of Scotland, and yet in these situations are fairly 

 plentiful in their numbers. I believe that the Crested Tit 

 is unknown in any county of Great Britain south of Inver- 

 ness-shire, and even in that county the ornithologist may 

 look long and carefully without seeing a single representa- 

 tive of the species. For this little bird buries himself 

 amongst the pine woods where, for his companions, he 

 has the stag and the blackcock. Artificially created wood- 

 lands are not to his liking, for here he searches in vain for 

 those tree stumps, half hollow and crumbling with age, 

 where he makes his nest. And so it comes about that the 

 Crested Tit is found only in the ancient forests of Scots 

 pine, which are the relics of the great Caledonian forest 

 extending in former times from Fort William on the west 

 to Aberdeenshire on the east. 



It would obviously be ill-advised to give publicity to 

 the chief nesting haunt of the species, though I am afraid 

 the district, as it is, abounds with collectors. Still I may 

 put it on record as an interesting fact that in the forests 

 of Mar and Ballochbuie, where one would expect to see 

 something of the birds, they are entirely absent. As a 



267 



