GREAT TIT, 463 
PARUS MAJOR. 
GREAT TIT, 
(PLatE 9.) 
Parus major, Briss. Orn. ili. p. 539 (1760); Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 341 (1766); et 
auctorum plurimorum—Latham, Gmelin, Bechstein, _ Naumann, Temminck, 
Gray, Bonaparte, Degland, Gerbe, Newton, Dresser, §:c. 
Parus fringillago, Pall. Zoogi, Rosso- Asiat. i. p. 555 (1826). 
Parus robustus, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl, p. 461 (1831), 
The Great Tit, one of the largest species of its genus, is a common bird 
throughout the wooded portions of Great Britain, occasionally straggling 
as far north as the Shetlands, but appearing never to visit the Outer 
Hebrides. Gray states that in Scotland it becomes less frequent north of 
Argyllshire. It is generally distributed throughout Ireland in suitable 
localities. 
The Great Tit appears to be found throughout the Palearctic region, 
from the British Islands to the Pacific. In Norway, under the influence 
of the gulf-stream, it ranges as far north as the arctic circle (lat. 664°). 
In West Russia it has not been recorded north of lat. 64°. In the valley 
of the Obb, Finsch and Brehm did not observe it north of lat. 62°; whilst 
in the valley of the Yenesay I did not find it north of lat. 58°. On the 
Pacific coast, Middendorff did not obtain it further north than lat.55°. It 
extends in the west as far south as the Canary Islands, Algeria, Palestine, 
and Persia, and in the east as far as North Turkestan and the Amoor. In 
Mongolia, China, and Japan its place is taken by a nearly allied but 
apparently quite distinct species, P. minor, which is on an average a 
slightly smaller bird, and has the yellow of the underparts replaced by 
buffish white. In examples from South China the upper back is greyer ; 
and every intermediate form between P. minor and P. cinereus of the plains 
of India occurs there, in which latter species, in the aduit bird, all traces 
of green have disappeared from the back, leaving it slate-grey. In the 
mountains of India, Ceylon, and Java a large race of P. cinereus occurs, 
P. atriceps, in which the black on the belly and centre tail-feathers is 
somewhat more developed. In Turkestan a pale form of P. atriceps occurs, 
P. bokarensis, differing also in having the tail considerably more rounded. 
All these tropical and semitropical forms appear to be specifically distinct 
from P. major, but are probably only subspecifically distinct from each 
other. The most remarkable fact connected with the geographical distribu- 
tion of the Great Tit is that, whilst its range differs from those of the Blue 
- Tit and the Crested Tit, which are confined to Europe, and agrees with 
