338 Mr. H. F. Witherby 07i a Collecting [Ibis, 



was iu juvenile plumage and could not be assigned to any 

 race. But in the (>antabrians we obtained a series of sixteen 

 in fresh plumage. I have carefully compared these with other 

 Marsh-Tits, and cannot separate them either by coloui* or 

 by size from series of P. 'p- communis and P. j). lon(jirostris. 

 These two forms intergrade so much that I think their 

 distinctions cannot be upheld, and I have therefore adopted 

 the older name communis. 



^githalos Cauda tus taiti Ingram. 



Long-tailed Tits were fairly common and we obtained a 

 good series. A careful comparison of these with good series 

 of Portugu(\se and Pyrenees birds leads me to the conclusion 

 that they are all the same. I can find no constant difference 

 either in colour or size. This being so, y^. c. jnji^enaicus 

 must be regarded as a synonym. The black stripes on the 

 sides of the crown sometimes meet on the forehead and 

 sometimes do not, but they are decidedly broader than in the 

 Biitish bird, to which this form is most akin, while taiti has 

 also less pink on the mantle and back, and has a yellow 

 eyelid and orbital ring in the adult. I have not seen 

 specimens of Long-tailed Tits from south of Coimbra in 

 Portugal, and it will be interesting to find the exact range 

 of the very different ^. c. irbii. 



Regulus ignicapillus ignicapillus (Temm.). 

 Fire-crests were fiiirly common. We saw no Goldcrests. 

 Irby does not mention either species. 



Muscicapa hypoleuca hypoleuca (Pall.). 



Pied Flycatchers were to be found here and there in the 

 woods at Riafio and Potes, and must, I think, have been the 

 breeding bir.ls of the district (Irby notes it as common in 

 summer) , though the adults were all in winter plumage. Tiiey 

 were of the typical form and not M. h. speculigera, which we 

 had found breeding the year before on the south side of 

 the Serra da Estrella in Portugal. Spotted Flycatchers 

 (i/. striata), which Irby mentions, had apparently left by 

 the time we arrived as we saw none. 



