Species of Passerine Birds. 57 



surrounds tlie small town of Mistretta, in the Province of 

 Messina, has an elevation varying from 900 to 1300 metres 

 above sea-level, and its woods are chiefly of cork-, oak-, 

 chestnut-, and olive-trees. I was somewhat surprised to 

 find A. sicula at an elevation of below 1000 metres in the 

 month of June; but the slopes of the hills near Mistretta 

 have a northern aspect, and the temperature is probably 

 never very high there. On the approach of autumn A. sicula 

 returns to its winter-quarters, and during the first week of 

 October I obtained specimens of it again from the Bosco di 

 Fieiizza, whereas my collector entirely failed to meet with 

 the species during that month in the Madonian mountains 

 (the Montes Marones of Pliny) or the Nebrodian range (the 

 Monies Nebrodes of Strabo). 



To sum up, Acredula sicula appears to be an insular form, 

 closely allied to A. caucasica Lorenz, occurring, so far as is 

 at present known, only in the island of Sicily, and inhabiting 

 the wooded inland districts of that island, where it breeds 

 in the higher mountain forests. 



So far as I am aware, no other form of Acredula occurs 

 in Sicily, although Doderlein has stated that A. irbii was to 

 be found there as a winter migrant ; indeed he mentions 

 having sent a Sicilian specimen of that species to the British 

 Museum ('Avifauna del Mod. e della Sic' pp. 138 & 341). 

 It is quite possible that A. irbii may also occur in the island 

 but I have no knowledge of its doing so, and the Sicilian 

 collection of the Palermo University Museum only possesses 

 a solitary example of Acredula, the label attached to which 

 bears the following inscription : "Parus caudatus, Linn., 

 Marzo 1888: Bosco della Fienzza." 



After some hesitation, I have decided not to suppress the 

 names of the several districts in Sicily where I have found 

 A. sicula, as I think that it would hardly repay any trading 

 naturalist to attempt to lay in a " stock " of sjecimens 

 of the species, and the difficulties which beset the ordinary 

 traveller in the interior of the island are of themselves 

 sufficient to deter any but the keenest collector from 

 penetrating those mountainous regions ! 



