PARUS LEDOUCI 137 



PARUS LEDOUCI, Malherbe. 

 ALGERIAN COAL-TITMOUSE. 



Parus ledoucii, Malherbe, Cat. Ois. Alg. in Mem. de la Soc. d'Hist. 

 Nat. de la Moselle, 1842, p. 45. 



Parus ledouci, Gadoiu, Cat. Birds Brit. Mies, viii, p. 44 ; Malherbe, Cat. 

 Eais. d'Ois. Alg. p. 12 (1846) ; Loche, Expl. Sci. Alg. Ois. i, p. 298, 

 pi. vii. (1867) ; Koenig, J. f. 0. 1888, p. 175 ; id. J. f. 0. 1892, p. 374. 



Parus ater ledouci, Erlanger, J. f. 0. 1899, p. 309. 



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



Entire crown, region over the eye, sides of nape and throat glossy black; 

 ear-coverts, cheeks, sides of the neck and nape lemon-yellov? ; the remainder 

 of the upper plumage greyish-green, becoming brighter on the rump ; wings 

 and tail grey, fringed with greenish ; upper wing-coverts tipped with whitish, 

 forming a double alar bar ; breast and abdomen lemon-yellow, becoming 

 greyer on the sides and flanks. 



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



Total length 4 inches, wing 2-50, culmen -35, tarsus -70. 



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

 slightly smaller. 



Observations. —Examples are sometimes met with in which the yellow 

 coloration of the underparts is very pale ; this is probably merely due to 

 immaturity. It is also to be found in the Great Tit. 



This Titmouse appears to be the representative in Tunisia of the 

 Coal-Tit group. It occurs in most of the forests of the north of the 

 Regency, though less abundantly than either the Great Tit or the 

 Ultramarine Tit, and, as a rule, is to be fouad at rather a higher 

 elevation than either of these species. 



P. ledotici also occurs in the mountainous and more wooded parts 

 of Algeria, and Dr. Koenig found it not at all uncommon on the 

 Djebel Touggour, and throughout the Aures range. Mr. C. Dixon, too, 

 found the species abundant in the Aures Mountains, and particularly 

 so in the Cedar range west of Batna, where, he writes, " the trees 

 were literally alive with them." He moreover met with the birds 

 in the lower-lying evergreen oak-woods, as well as in the pine-forests, 

 and gives some interesting details regarding the habits of this species, 

 among other things observing that, unlike other Tits, he saw it 

 repeatedly perched on rocks (Ibis, 1882, p. 570). 



