478 BRITISH BIRDS. 
fically distinct, being very much browner both above and below, especially 
on the flanks, than even examples of P. palustris from the British Islands ; 
it has also the rounded tail which characterizes the birds of North Europe, 
Siberia, and Japan. It may be looked upon as a semitropical form, and is 
possibly more nearly allied to the Sombre Tit (P. dugubris) of South-eastern 
Europe, a species somewhat larger in size and having the black on the 
throat much more clearly defined, like the North-American representatives 
of the Marsh-Tit, P. atricapillus and P. carolinensis. The range of P. son- 
garus extends from the Thianshan and Alashan mountains eastwards to 
Kansu. 
All these forms undoubtedly interbreed wherever their ranges meet, 
and can only be regarded as varieties of one variable species, which 
presents a striking example of scarcely distinguishable eastern and western 
forms connected together by a central semiarctic form, and represented 
in the south by a semitropical form—a peculiarity of geographical dis- 
tribution characteristic of many species of migratory Palearctic birds. 
The Marsh-Tit has scarcely a right to itsname. It is never seen on the 
reeds or in the sedge, which are the special characteristics of a marsh, but 
in bushes or trees of all kinds, great or small, on the confines of the reeds, 
on the bushes by the river-side, or in the garden; even in the suburban 
gardens on the outskirts of London or Sheffield, it is almost sure td be 
found. Nevertheless it is less partial to very dry districts than some of 
the other Tits. For example, in the Parnassus, though Kriiper told me 
that he had found it down in the plains, I never met with it in either the 
pine-region or the district where beeches or oaks once flourished, but which 
is now only a grass region, whereas the Coal Tit, the Great Tit, and the 
Sombre Tit were all there. Again, in the endless pine-forests which sur- 
round Arcachon, both in the newer forests, where the ground is little more 
than bare sand, and in the older forests, where a subsoil of peat has esta- 
blished itself, though the Great Tit, the Crested Tit, and the Coal Tit are 
common, and we once saw a Blue Tit, we never met with a Marsh-Tit. 
The latter species, however, was not rare in the cultivated districts round 
Pau. 
In its habits the Marsh-Tit scarcely differs from its near allies. Though 
smaller than most of them, it is as active as any of them, and, like the 
Goldcrests and the Willow-Warblers, may be seen in almost every con- 
ceivable position searching for insects on the buds at the end of a branch. 
Sometimes it peers down from above, and sometimes from below. Now it 
twists to this side, and now to that. Sometimes it hangs by one leg; and 
sometimes it may be seen poised in front of the end of the bough, with 
half-spread tail and its little wings buzzing like those of a hawkmoth. On 
the whole it isa silent bird; but sometimes, as it passes through the wood, 
you may hear its four loud and rather plaimtive notes uttered in rapid 
