Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Iviii. (1914), No. ;{. 7 



secondary quills with yellowish-brown." These points 

 are valuable, as I shall show. 



Mudie, in 1853, says: "The plumage is more downy 

 and free from gloss than that of the former species (the 

 Coal Tit) ; and the black on the head is not so deep, 

 though from being entire and having no lustre, it shows 

 better." 



Newton, in " Yarrell,' 4th edition, 1871-4, calls "the 

 forehead, crown and nape black, slightly glossed with 

 bluish-green." 



Gould (1873J made an unfortunate error, for he de- 

 picted two undoubted ^larsh Tits with glossy blue-black 

 heads and quoted Macgillivray's description. 



Seebohm (1883), after discussing borealis and other 

 forms, says " the typical form of the Marsh Tit has the 

 head, from the base of the bill to the nape, bluish black.'' 



Sharpe (1896) describes the "crown of head glossy 

 blue-black." 



Saunders (1899) remarks : "upper part of head and 

 nape glossy black." 



Stonham (1906) says: 'Forehead, crown and nape 

 glossy black." 



Kirkman and his helpers, in the recently completed 

 " British Bird Book," figure and describe both species. 



The natural conclusion from this list is that Newton, 

 Seebohm, Sharpe and Saunders were all correctly de- 

 scribing Pants palustris, although all four refer to racial 

 variation. Montagu, Macgillivray and Mudie took their 

 descriptions from Willow Tits, and Macgillivray's is, 

 perhaps, the most important, for he distinctly states that 

 the birds he examined were obtained in Scotland. This, 

 then, bears out the opinion that is now generally held 

 that the Willow Tit, and not the Marsh Tit, is the black- 

 headed titmouse north of the Border, or, at anv rate, that 



