The Coal-Tit. 151 



interesting, when suddenly the}- all died off within two days ; having probably 

 swallowed some wadding from their bed, in their greediness after food dropped 

 upon it. 



Family— PARID^. 



The Coal-Tit. 



Parus atcr, LiNN. 



DR. SHARPE has separated the British race of this species under the name 

 of P. britannicus on account of the olive- brown tint of its upper back ; 

 but it would appear that the Continental form also occurs in Great 

 Britain, as well as intermediate grades between the grey and brown-backed forms. 

 As a matter of fact these differences, if they were constant, would be trifling as 

 compared with the far more defined local variations of our Yellow-Hammer, the 

 male Kentish bird in breeding plumage differing from that of some parts of 

 Surrey, almost as much as a Saffron-finch does from a Greenfinch. 



On the Continent the Coal-Tit is generally distributed and resident throughout 

 Central and Southern Europe, extending northward in summer up to lat. 65°. In 

 Great Britain it is generally distributed, though local in Scotland, and not recorded 

 from the Outer Hebrides, Orkneys, or Shetlands. 



The adult male has the head and throat blue-black, with the exception of a 

 white patch on the nape, and a much larger one extending from a little behind 

 the base of the bill below the eye to the neck ; back slaty-grey, more or less 

 suffused with olive-brown ; rump browner ; wings and tail greyish-brown ; median 

 and greater wing-coverts with white tips, forming two bars ; breast white, some- 

 what sordid and gradually shading into buff-brownish on the belly and flanks ; 

 bill black ; feet leaden grey ; iris hazel. The female is duller in colour, the white 



P2 



