i62 The Crested Tit. 



Family— PARID.ll. 



The Crested Tit. 



Parus cristatns, LiNN. 



NEVER having personally met with this extremely local species, I am 

 compelled to base my account of it entirely upon the writings of others ; 

 a course which, when possible, it is always best to avoid. 



As regards its distribution on the Continent, Howard Saunders writes: — "The 

 Crested Titmouse inhabits the pine-forests of Scandinavia and Russia to about 

 64° N. lat. ; and eastward it can be traced as far as the valleys of the Don and 

 the Volga. In Germany, wherever conifers are plentiful, and in the higher districts 

 of France, the bird is to be found in tolerable abundance ; it also breeds in Dutch 

 Brabant, principally in oak-trees, for it is by no means restricted to firs ; and in the 

 Alps, Carpathians, and other ranges of Central Europe it is generally distributed. 

 In some parts of the Higher Pyrenees I found it the most abundant of the genus ; 

 while in the south of France and in Spain it may often be observed among trees 

 close by the sea. In the latter country it breeds in the cork-woods in the vicinity 

 of Gibraltar, as well as on higher ground ; and it is also common in Portugal." 



Respecting its distribution in Great Britain, Seebohm says : — " 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." 



" In England, Mr. Harting, in his ' Handbook,' records eight instances of its 

 occurrence; Mr. Simpson records another in the 'Zoologist,' for 1872, p. 3021, and 

 Baron Von Hiigel one more specimen in the same periodical for 1874, p. 4065." 



As to the reputed occurrence of two specimens of the Crested Tit in Ireland, 

 authorities are not agreed ; therefore it is safest to doubt. 



The male Crested Tit, when adult, has the feathers of the head black, margined 

 with ashy-white ; those from the crown backwards elongated so as to form a well- 



