4 Coward, JVillozv Titmouse hi Lancashire and Chcs/iire. 



published a list of the birds occurring in Cheshire,' and 

 had made no mention of the Willow Tit, although we 

 had, of course, included the Marsh Tit, made me anxious 

 to discover the status of each species in the country. I 

 examined every Marsh Tit I saw as carefully as possible, 

 and also looked at the few specimens in museums and local 

 collections. The result of my investigations is that the 

 Willow Tit does occur in Cheshire and South Lancashire, 

 but that if compared with the Marsh Tit it is decidedly 

 rare. We were, in a measure, more fortunate than 

 Mr. Hugh S. Gladstone, who published his " Birds of 

 Dumfriesshire " in the same year, and who described the 

 British Marsh Tit as " A very scarce and very local 

 resident,"** and added that the British Willow Tit had not 

 been detected in the county. In 1912 he modified this 

 by saying that " Previous local records of the British 

 Marsh Titmouse, Parus palustris dresseri, should presum- 

 ably be applied to this species." — P.a. kleinscluiiidti? 



I found that there were two Willow Tits in the War- 

 rington Museum, and submitted them to Mr. Witherb\- 

 for confirmation. One of these birds was obtained at 

 Padgate, near Warrington, in 1890, but the locality and 

 date of the other has been lost, although Mr. Madeley 

 feels sure that it is a local specimen and probably from 

 Lancashire/'' Birds in the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, 

 and in other collections were Marsh Tits, but in order to 

 support my opinion I forwarded a couple for confirmation 

 to Mr. Witherby. 



In December, 191 1, I looked through the British- 

 taken black-capped Tits in the Dresser collection, but 

 found only one which I thought was incorrectly labelled. 



" "The Vertebrate Fauna of Cheshire," 1910, i. 

 ** " Birds of Dumfriesshire," 1910, 40, 41. 



'-' " A Catalogue of the Vertebrate Fauna of Dumfriesshire," 1912, 16. 

 ^" "British Birds," iv, 1910-1911, 337. 



