TITMOUSE 967 



number of other genera form the Family Paridx of modern 

 ornithology. Its limits are, however, very ill-defined ; and here 

 only the species best known to English readers can be noticed. 



I. The first to be mentioned is that called from its comparatively 

 large size the Great Titmouse, P. major, but known also in many 

 parts as the Ox-EYE (p. 680), conspicuous by its black head, white 

 cheeks and yellow breast, down which runs a black line, while in 

 spring the cock makes himself heard by a loud love-note that 

 resembles the noise made in sharpening a saw. It is widely 

 distributed throughout the British Islands, and over nearly the 

 whole of Europe and northern Asia. The next is the Blue 

 Titmouse, Blue-cap or NuN (p. 646), P. cxruleus,^ smaller than the 

 last and more common. Its names are so characteristic as to make 

 any description needless. A third common species, but not so 

 numerous as either of the foregoing, is the Coal-Titmouse, P. ater, 

 distinguished by its black cap, white cheeks and white nape. 

 Some interest attaches to this species because of the difference 

 observable between the race inhabiting the scanty remnants of the 

 ancient Scottish forests and that which occurs throughout the rest 

 of Britain. The former is more brightly tinted than the latter, 

 having a clear bluish-grey mantle and the lower part of the back 

 greenish, hardly either of which colours are to be seen in the same 

 parts of more southern examples, which last have been described 

 as forming a distinct species, P. britannicus. But it is to be 

 observed that the denizens of the old Scotch fir-woods are nearly 

 midway in coloration between the dingy southern birds and those 

 which prevail over the greater part of the Continent. It would 

 therefore seem unreasonable to speak of two species only : there 

 should be either three or one, and the latter alternative is to be 

 preferred, provided the existence of the local races be duly 

 recognized. Much the same thing is to be noticed in the next 

 species to be mentioned, the Marsh-Titmouse, P. palustris, which, 

 sombre as is its plumage, is subject to considerable local variation 

 in its very extensive range, and has been called P. borealis in 

 Scandinavia, P. alpestris in the Alps and P. lugubris in south-eastern 

 Europe, to say nothing of forms like P. baicalensis, P. camchatkensis 

 and others, whose names denote its local variations in northern 

 Asia, while no great violence is exercised if to these be tacked on 

 P. atricapilla with several geographical races which inhabit North 

 America. A fifth British species is the rare Crested Titmouse, P. 

 cristatus, only found in limited districts in Scotland, though common 

 enough, especially in pine -woods, in many parts of Europe. 



It is impossible to state how many species of Parus exist, their 



1 Canon Tristram informs me that the historic bottle at Oxbridge {supra, 

 p. 553, note) was reoccupied in 1895, making a tenancy, though not quite con- 

 tinuous, of at least 110 years. 



