The Long-Tailed Tit. 145 



Family— PARID.^. 



The Long-Tailed Tit. 



Acrednla caudata, LiNN. 



THE British representative of this species, to which the name of Acrediila rosea 

 has been given, can hardly be maintained as a distinct species ; inasmuch 

 as, in Western Germany and France, if not also in Italy and Turkey, it 

 freely interbreeds with the typical form ; as, in Lombardy it appears to do with 

 another variety- — A. irbii, between which and A. rosea all kinds of intergrades 

 exist. Moreover the differences between these forms are slight and not invariably 

 constant ; and the fact that three or four examples of the typical form have been 

 obtained at various times, or seen in company with the British variety would 

 tend to show that the modifications are not even strictly climatic. The different 

 types are as follows : — 



A. caudata : — Head, nape and sides of neck, throat, breast, edge of wing and 

 under wing coverts snow-white. 



Distributed through Northern and Central Europe, across Southern Siberia 

 to Japan : has occurred in Great Britain. 



A. macrura : — Differing in having a longer tail by about half an inch in the 

 majority of specimens. 



Northern Europe, eastwards from St. Petersburg and in the island of Askold. 



A. trivirgata : — Slighty smaller than A. rosea, most examples having the black 

 e3'ebrow-streak continued across the lores to the base of the bill. 



Yokohama. 



A. irbii: — Also slightly smaller than A. rosea, with the mantle, back, and 

 rump greyer, and the scapulars grey. 



Sicily, South and Central Italy and Spain. 



A. rosea : — The white on the head restricted to the crown and forehead. 



Holland, Western Germany, France, Northern Italy and Turkey. Pretty 

 generally distributed, though somewhat local, throughout Great Britain. 



In the female of the British type, the black stripe from eye to nape is 

 broader than in the male. 



Although, in body, this is the smallest of the British Titmice, it certainly is 



