( 146 ) 

 THE NOTES OF THE BRITISH WILLOW-TIT. 



BY 

 C. J. ALEXANDER. 



For nearly three years, since the notices of the British 

 Willow-Tit {Parus atricapillus kleinschmidti) appeared 

 in the early numbers of British Birds, my brother, H. G. 

 Alexander, and I have paid special attention to the notes 

 of the black-capped Tits. In January, 1908, we heard 

 one of these birds singing in a manner similar to the 

 Alpine WiUow-Tit, which we had both of us heard in 

 Switzerland. This bird also made a deep plaintive note. 

 Since then we have repeatedly watched birds making this 

 note, at all times of the j^ear, and in no instance has the 

 same bird uttered either the common double note charac- 

 teristic of the British Marsh-Tit {Parus palustris dresseri) 

 or the succession of notes constituting the song of that 

 species : and the converse holds true. 



Although we did not succeed in making out any certain 

 difference in plumage between the two species, we con- 

 sidered the evidence sufficient to allow us to assign the 

 notes above-mentioned to the Willow- and Marsh-Tits 

 respectively. However, a few months ago Colonel R. H. 

 Rattray, of Tonbridge, wTote to my brother that he had 

 heard the plaintive note and had caught the bird that was 

 making it : on comparing this with a Marsh-Tit he found 

 that aU the differences mentioned in Dr. Ticehurst's 

 Birds of Kent were distinguishable. 



I therefore have now no hesitation in giving a comparison 

 of the notes of the two species.* 



British Marsh-Tit (P. p. dresseri) : — 



(1) Double note; the most usual; often followed by 

 a harsh note repeated several times. (The Great 

 Tit occasionally makes a precisely similar note.) 



* This is slightly different from the account given in Dr. Ticehurst's 

 History of the Birds of Kent, that I sent him two years ago ; and as it 

 had not occurred to me that he would put it in his book, I did not 

 emphasize the fact that I was then not sufficiently siu-e of it to publish 

 it. I much regret that I should ha^-e been the means of introducing 

 any inacciu-acy into the book. 



