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EUROPEAN AND BRITISH COAL TITs. 473 
and apparently to interbreed with the British subspecies, as intermediate 
forms between them can be obtained. Our bird is distinguished by having 
the slate-grey of the upper parts suffused with brown, which in the typical 
form is observable on the rump only, and by having more brown on the 
flanks. The typical form appears to be found t hroughout the continent of 
Europe south of the Arctic circle. Examples from Western and Central 
Siberia scarcely differ, except that the white parts are somewhat purer, the 
slate-grey of the upper parts a little brighter, and a tendency to a crest 
is occasionally developed. In examples from Eastern Siberia, the valley of 
the Lower Amoor, the Ussuri, Japan, and Kamtschatka the upper parts 
scarcely present any difference, but the brown on the flanks extends to 
the breast and belly. In North China this is still more the case, and a 
decided crest is observable in adult males, so that this form has been 
described as distinct under the name of P. pekinensis. The brown on the 
underparts reaches its greatest development in Turkestan; and to this 
form the name of P. rufipectus has been applied. In birds from both 
these latter localities the upper parts also are suffused with brown, but not 
to quite such an extent as in examples of the British form. In the 
Himalayas the Coal Tit (P. e@modius) is, as might be expected, a still more 
tropical form : the buff on the underparts is slightly more pronounced; the 
white on the cheeks is not so pure; the size is slightly smaller, and the 
crest more developed. It isnot known which form of the Coal Tit inhabits 
South Russia; but in the Caucasus a form is found, P. michalowskii, almost 
exactly like the British form in colour, but a trifle larger ; and further east 
in South Persia these differences are exaggerated : the upper parts are still 
browner, inclining to olive; and the brown on the flanks is as much deve- 
loped as in the Turkestan birds. This form has received the name of 
P. pheonotus. It is impossible to look upon any of these forms as specific. 
We know that most of them are connected together by intermediate 
examples; and the series is only broken in districts from which we have 
been unable to obtain specimens. 
There are numerous tropical forms of the Coal Tit inhabiting the Hima- 
layas. Several of these may be distinguished by the absence of the wing- 
bars ; another, more nearly allied to our bird, P. melanolophos, is distin- 
guished by its dark slate-grey belly and well-developed crest. In Algeria 
the Coal Tit, P. ledoucti, appears to have been so long isolated from its 
relations as to have become specifically distinct, differing in having the 
underparts, including the cheeks and the nape, yellow instead of* white or 
buff. The Coal Tit does not appear to have any representative in America. 
The Coal Tit, although as interesting in its habits and appearance, is not 
quite so well known a bird as its congeners the Blue Tit and the Great 
Tit. It does not so often come into notice; for it usually confines itself to 
the woods and the wilder tracts of country, and is not commonly met with 
