2 Nicholson, Palcearctic Species of Coal-Tits. 



I do not intend in the present short article to reproduce 

 the whole of the synonymy so elaborately detailed by 

 Mr. Prazak, but the following notes occur to me. 



Mr. Prazak, in speaking of the typical Coal-Tit of 

 Europe, which is Panes ater of Linnaeus (founded on the 

 Scandinavian species), includes Great Britain and Ireland 

 as within its range. In proof of the last-named locality, 

 he quotes Thompson's " Birds of Ireland," and Seebohm's 

 paper on Irish birds in the Ibis for 1890 (p. 400) ; but in 

 these instances the name of Parus ater, Linn., for the 

 Irish bird was given by Thompson in ignorance that the 

 British Coal-Tit was different from the typical continental 

 form, and by Seebohm doubtless from conservative notions 

 of nomenclature. The Coal-Tit of Ireland is the same as 

 that of England and Scotland, viz.. Partis britanniciis, and 

 is not Panis ater, which is the species of Scandinavia and 

 the continent of Europe. Parus britaiinicus is the resident 

 species of the British Islands, although the true P. ater is 

 said to occur occasionally in England. I have never 

 myself seen an English specimen of P. ater, and there is 

 not one individual in the collection of the British Museum 

 or the Manchester Museum, but that occasional specimens 

 are to be met with cannot be doubted. Considering the 

 hordes of tiny Goldcrests that annually migrate to the 

 eastern coasts of Britain, there is nothing wonderful in 

 the appearance of an occasional Coal-Tit from Scandi- 

 navia. Our British bird has an olive-brown back in its 

 full winter plumage, but as this plumage gets worn 

 during the breeding season, it becomes more grey, and it 

 then resembles in some slight degree the grey-backed 

 P. ater, but this latter species is blue-grey both in summer 

 and winter, and the comparison of a series shows that the 

 two birds are really quite distinct 



I agree with Dr. Bowdler Sharpe's observations on 



