48 



the rump, and the penultimate tail-feather on each side is white 

 with a black shaft and a band of black on the inner web. Small 

 variations in the colour of the tail occur, but they are never so 

 great as to cause any doubt in the identification of the species, 

 especially when supported by the colour of the back. 



The young of both species are very similar, and have a great 

 amount of yellowish green on the upper plumage, and it is not easy 

 to separate them. 



Distribution. Throughout the whole of India alike in the hills 

 and plains, but more commonly in the elevated and well-wooded 

 parts. In the Himalayas this Tit is found at all altitudes up to 

 9000 feet or more, from Hazara and Grilgit to Assam. It extends 

 through the peninsula down to Cape Comorin and into Ceylon, the 

 only portion from which it appears to be absent being Sind and 

 Cutch. From Assam its range extends down to Tenasserim, 

 where, however, it is noted by Davison as being rare. On the 

 eastern borders of Burma the next species is found ; but a bird pro- 

 cured near Bhamo by my collector was P. atriceps, and so appa- 

 rently is a young bird obtained by Anderson near the same locality 

 and now in the British Museum. 



Outside of Indian limits proper it occurs on the west in Balu- 

 chistan and Afghanistan, and on the north in Turkestan, where it 

 is found as a paler race (P. boccharensis), and it passes up the 

 Sutlej valley into Little Tibet. To the east it extends through 

 Southern China, and to the south down the Malay peninsula to the 

 islands. 



Habits, <$fc. Breeds from March to June, laying five or six eggs on 

 a pad of moss, grass, and hair in a hole of a tree or wall. The eggs 

 are pinkish white, with a ring of red spots and blotches round the 

 larger end and a few small spots elsewhere, and they measure '71 

 by -54. 



32. Parus minor. The Japanese Grey Tit. 



Parus minor, Temm. $ Schleg. Faun. Jap., Aves, p. 70, pi. 33 (1842) ; 



Gadow, Cat. B. M. viii, p. 15. 

 Parus cominixtus, Swinh. Ibis, 1868, p. 63 ; Wald. in Bl. Birds Bunn. 



p. Ill j Hume fy Dav. S. F. vi, p. 376 ; Hume, Cat. no. 645 bis. 



Coloration. E-esembles P. atriceps. Differs in having the back 

 and scapulars yellowish green instead of ashy grey and in having 

 the fifth pair of tail-feathers black with a small white tip. 



Iris hair-brown ; bill black ; legs plumbeous ( Wardlaw Ramsay). 



Of the same size as P. atriceps. 



The amount of black in the fifth pair of tail-feathers is 

 reduced towards the extreme south-western limit of the range, as 

 on the Burmese frontier. No other variation occurs, the back 

 being as green in Karennee examples as in typical Japanese ones. 



The specimen procured by Davison in the Salween district has 

 the fifth pair of rectrices white, with a broad black band on the 

 inner webs reaching nearly to the tip. In two Karennee examples 

 one has these feathers black with a white tip about half an inch 



