46 BRITISH BIRDS. 



but careful records have still to be made to confirm this, 

 for egg collectors in this, as in most other cases, have been 

 keen to get fine and abnormally coloured eggs rather than 

 to enquire closely into their parentage. 



Since the occurrence of Willow Tits in Great Britain 

 was first recorded by Kleinschmidt, a great deal of 

 controversy has taken place on tlie subject. Most of our 

 older ornithologists have failed, or rather refused, to see 

 the differences between the English Marsh and Willow 

 Tits, and again, in this instance, the old proverb, " None so 

 blind as those that will not see," has abundantly justified 

 itself. 



There are, however, also a few of our ornithologists 

 who, while seeing and appreciating the differences, stoutly 

 maintain that the Willow Tit is only the yomig in the 

 first year of the Marsh Tit. This is at once confuted by 

 the fact that several nests and a number of fully adult 

 parent birds of the Willow Tit have been taken in 

 England. 



To me the strangest and most deplorable fact connected 

 with the history of the Willow Tit in this country is that 

 nearly, if not all, those who absolutely deny the existence 

 of this bird in England maintain tlie distinction as good 

 species on the Continent of Parus palustris and Parus 

 borealis, and in North America of Paru^ atricapUlus and 

 Parus sclateri. 



Anyone who, Avithout preconceived ideas, examines a 

 series of specimens of the forms of Parus palustris and 

 those of P. atricapUlus side by side, cannot fail to detect 

 the differences I have before mentioned. And finally, 

 regarding the question whether these differences are of 

 specific value, I can only say that modern systematists 

 have decided that no two races or subspecies of the same 

 species of bird can live side by side ; they must either 

 inhabit different geographical areas or be found at different 

 vertical heights, i.e., one inhabiting the mountains and the 

 other the plains of one given district. 



Taking this for an axiom, the Willow Tits, which occur 



