PARID.1<:. 



THE CRESTED TITMOUSE. 

 Parus cristatus, EiniiKUS. 



The Crested Titmouse is a resident in a (e\\ of the oldest forests 

 of Scotland, which have not lost their natural growth of firs and 

 oaks ; and these, it may be sufficient to say, exist principally in the 

 valleys of the Spey and some neighbouring rivers. The bird is also 

 said to have been observed in summer in the Pass of Killiecrankie, 

 and it has undoubtedly occurred in Perthshire in winter ; but it 

 wanders little from its usual haunts, and one example in Argyleshire 

 and another near Dumbarton, appear to be the only authenticated 

 instances of its occurrence in the south-west of Scotland. In England 

 few of the cases on record can be substantiated, but a bird in the 

 Museum of Whitby, Yorkshire, was obtained in that vicinity in 

 March 1872 ; one, examined by Mr. E. P. P. Butterfield, is said to 

 have been shot in August 1887 near Keighley, in the same county; 

 and one appears to have been taken in Suffolk about 1847. Not- 

 withstanding Mr. Blake-Knox's circumstantial assertions that at 

 least two had been obtained in Ireland, Mr. A. G. More classes 

 this with the Blue Rock-Thrush and other " excluded species " in 

 his latest list. 



The Crested Titmouse inhabits the pinc-torcsts of Scandinavia 



