184 BIEDS OF TUNISIA 



doubt entitled to sabspecific, if not to specific, distinction. Mr. 

 Dresser, in his " Manual of Palsearctic Birds," enumerates no less than 

 ten different forms ! Among these he includes Canon Tristram's 

 C. minor from the Atlas. Three forms of the Dipper have been 

 recognised by many ornithologists as occurring in Europe, viz., 

 C. aquaticus, Bechst., C. melanogaster, C. L. Brehm, and C. alhicollis 

 (Vieill.), and accordmg to Prof. Giglioli (Avifauna Italica, p. 144) 

 all three are to be met with in Italy. 



Mr. Hartert has recently distinguished the Sardinian Dipper under 

 the name of Cinclus cinclus sarclus (Bull. B. 0. C. xiv, p. 51). 



I have in my collection a single specimen of the Dipper from 

 Sardinia, but have hesitated to separate it from the Scandinavian 

 form. 



Family PAEID^. 



PARUS MAJOR EXCELSUS, Brehm. 

 MEDITERRANEAN GREAT TITMOUSE. 



Parus major, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 341 (1766) ; Gaclow, Cat. Birds Brit. 



Mas. viii, p. 19; Malhcrbe, Cat. Eais. d' Ois. Alg. p. 12 (1846); Loche, 



Expl. Sci. Alg. Ois. i, p. 296 (1867) ; Kocnig, J. f. 0. 1888, p. 175; id. 



J. f. 0. 1892, p. 374 ; Whitaker, Ibis, 1896, p. 93 ; Erlanger, J. /. 0. 



1899, p. 285. 

 P. major excelsus, " Brehm," Biivry, J. f. 0. 1857, p. 194. 



Description. — Adult male, spring, from Ghardimaou, North Tunisia. 



Entire bead, except the cheeks and ear-coverts, glossy blue-black ; cheeks, 

 ear-coverts and a few featliers at top of the nape white ; nape and back 

 greenish, being brighter higher up and darker lower down ; rump and upper 

 tail- coverts bluish-grey ; tail bluish-grey, with the outer webs of the exterior 

 rectrices white ; primaries blackish, fringed with bluish-grey ; secondaries 

 blackish, fringed with whitish ; upper wing-coverts bluish-grey, greater- 

 coverts tipped with white ; underparts bright greenish-yellow, with a broad 

 irregular black stripe running down the middle of the breast and abdomen 

 to the crissum. 



Iris dark brown ; bill black ; feet bluish-slate. 



Total length 5'50 inches, wing 3, culmen -50, tarsus -80. 



Adult female similar to the male, but rather duller in colouring. 



