CRESTED TIT. 481 
PARUS CRISTATUS. 
CRESTED TIT. 
(Puate 9.) 
Parus cristatus, Briss. Orn. ii. p. 558 (1760); Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 8340 (1766); et 
auctorum plurimorum—Latham, Gmelin, Bechstein, Naumann, Temminck:, 
Gray, (Bonaparte), Degland, Gerbe, Newton, Dresser, &c. 
Lophophanes cristatus (Linn.), Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 92 (1829). 
Parus mitratus, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 467 (1831). 
The Crested Tit is one of the most local of our indigenous birds. Its 
only known breeding-grounds in the British Islands are in Scotland, in the 
valley of the Spey and in the adjoining counties of Ross and Inverness on 
the west, and Aberdeen on the east. In winter its distribution is a little 
more extended, and Mr. Gray remarks that it has been obtained as far south 
as Perthshire. In the western counties of Scotland but two specimens 
have been obtained—one in 1838 near Barcaldine House in Argyleshire, 
and another, of which the exact date is not known, taken near Dumbarton. 
Although, on the authority of Jardine, it has been said to have occurred in 
Lanarkshire, Mr. Gray has been unable to trace it m any part of that 
county during the last twenty years. In England, Mr. Harting, in his 
‘Handbook,’ records eight instances of its occurrence; Mr. Simpson re- 
cords another in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1872, p. 3021, and Baron Von Hiigel 
one more specimen in the same periodical for 1874, p. 4065. Although 
not included by Thompson, the bird has occurred in Ireland, as shown by 
Sharpe and Dresser, upon the authority of Mr. Blake Knox, who mentions 
two specimens. 
The Crested ‘Tit, though its range is very restricted, is much commoner 
and less local on the Continent, being a resident in most of the pine-forests, 
though it does not appear to range further north than lat. 64°, whence 
Meves records it. To the east it has only with certainty been found as far 
as the valleys of the Don aud the Volga above Sarepta. Bogdanow thinks 
that its occurrence in the Caucasus rests upon insufficient evidence. To 
the south it is found in many localities as far as the Mediterranean, but its 
range does not appear to extend to Africa. Kriiper found it in Turkey : 
but it has not yet occurred in Italy south of the Alps, Greece, Asia Minor, 
or Palestine. : 
There are several species of Tit which are distinguished by having a 
crest; but since in the Coal Tits there seems to bea series of intermediate 
forms between the crested and non-crested varieties, it would be extremely 
unadvisable to separate them from the genus Parus, otherwise ii merely 
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