tineotal 

 Europe. 



212 



Its breeding haunts appear to be willow thickets by rivers, swampy 

 woods etc., where it excavates a hole in some decayed stump. The nest 

 is scanty, like that of other races of this species. Probably the eggs 

 are laid in the latter half of April, as Kleinschmidt found one in the 

 oviduct of a hen bird on April 12. 



d. Northern Willow Tit, P. atrieapillus borealis Selys. 



Plate 20, fig. 17—20 (Karlo, J. A. Sandman). 



Eggs: Baedeker, J. f. O., 1856, Tab. II. fig. 13; id. Tab. 43, fig. 16, 

 Dresser, pi. — , fig. 40 — 42. 



Foreign Names: Finland: Hdmottiiainen. Norway: Nor disk Meise. 

 Russia: Oaischki, Puchliak. Sweden: Talltita, Orclmes. 

 P. borealis Selys. Dresser, Birds of Europe, III, p. 107. P. salicarius 

 Brehm. Id., Man. Pal. Birds, I. c. (part.). P. atrieapillus borealis Selys. 

 Hartert, Vog. Pal. Fauna, p. 378. 



Breeding Range: Scandinavia, E. Prussia, Baltic Provinces, Fin- 

 land and N. Russia. 

 Con- In Norway it is found haunting the coniferous woods and the ad- 



joining birch region throughout the whole country to E. Finmark, but in 

 Sweden its range is more restricted, and it is not found in Skane or 

 Blekinge in the S., nor northward of lat. 641". In E. Prussia it breeds 

 occasionally in Masurenland according to Hartert (see also Falco, 1907, 

 p. 72), and is the commonest Tit in the Baltic Provinces, and also in 

 Finland. In Lapland AVheelwright found it breeding near Quikjock and 

 it also occurs in the Kola peninsula as far as the tree limit, but only 

 in small numbers. It is replaced in the E. of the Archangel Government, 

 by P. atrieapillus baikalensis (Swinh.) but is common in Olonetz and 

 Vologda. It has recently been recorded from England (Gloucestershire, 1908). 

 Nest. The nesting hole is apparently always bored, or at any rate enlarged, 



by the birds themselves in a rotten tree. The entrance hole is about 

 6 or 8 in. long, and becomes wider at the bottom, where the eggs are 

 laid on a bed of fine strips of juniper bark or fibres of decayed willow 

 or alder. No moss, hair, or feathers are used. 

 Eggs. Usually 8, sometimes only 7, while 9 to 11 and even 12 have 



occasionally been found. They are as a rule decidedly shorter and more 

 rounded in shape than those of the Northern Marsh Tit, and perhaps 

 the spots are rather redder, but cannot be distinguished with certainty. 

 Breeding The cggs are laid at the end of April in the Baltic Provinces and 



Season, g^ secoud brood is said to be raised there in June: in S. Scandinavia 

 they are laid about mid-May and about a week later in the extreme N. 

 and in Finland. The eggs are covered up till incubation begins (Zool. 

 1877, p. 198). 



