LONG-TAILED TITMOUSE. 507 



generally cling to one another on the same branch at roost, 

 looking, when thus massed together, like a shapeless lump 

 of feathers or a bundle of dead leaves. The notes of this 

 species are very diflerent from those of any of the genus 

 Parus, being weak and only to be heard at a short distance. 

 Their sound, however, suffices to assemble and keep together 

 the flock, and in spring the cock has a pleasing though feeble 

 and short song. 



The Long-tailed Titmouse breeds regularly in all the 

 counties of Great Britain, though in some it is rather a local 

 species, and occasionally it seems to disappear from a district 

 for a year or two. It is also pretty common in some of the Inner 

 Hebrides and it has occurred in Shetland, though as might 

 be expected of such a tree-haunting bird it is extremely rare 

 there. In Ireland, according to Thompson (B. Irel. Pref. p. 

 xix.), it has, like the Mistletoe-Thrush, of late years gradually 

 become more plentiful : the extension of plantations being 

 accessory to this end in respect of both species. Still it 

 would seem to have been observed in some thirteen counties 

 only, and in none to the south-west of Galway and Tipperary, 

 though, as he remarks, it may not improbably be found in 

 every county throughout the island possessing abundance of 

 wood. 



Whether our Long-tailed Titmouse is to be regarded as in- 

 habiting any part of the continent depends chiefly, as with 

 several other birds, on the value assigned to certain differences 

 which have, in this case, been long known to exist, and are 

 commonly observable between British and foreign specimens. 

 These differences the Editor was at one time inclined to con- 

 sider specific so far as regards the British form and that found 

 in the north and centre of Europe. Usually there can be little 

 or no doubt in deciding whether an adult example is a native 

 of Britain or of Scandinavia or Germany, for the Long- 

 tailed Titmouse of the countries last-mentioned has, when 

 fully mature, the whole of the head white, without any trace 

 of the dark stripes which, as may be seen from the figure, 

 and as will be presently described, characterize the British 

 form. But in various parts of our island examples have been 



