198 



CRESTED TIT. 



CKESTED TITMOUSE. 



Farm cristatus, PENNANT. MONTAGU. 



Parus ? Cristatus -Crested. 



'!F any of my readers,' says Macgillivray, 'should be anxious 

 to know how an author may contrive to talk a great deal 

 about nothing, he may consult the article, 'Crested Tit,' in 

 an amusing work entitled 'The Feathered Tribes of the British 

 Islands." I have only hereon to remark that Mr. Macgillivray 

 is very seldom wrong, and this is not one of the few instances 

 in which he is. Mudie certainly disproved the truth of the 

 proverb 'ex nihilo nihil fit,' for though his stock of knowledge 

 of any bird might be 'nil,' that had nothing whatever to do 

 with the 'quantum' he wrote about it; and thus he made 

 his book. 



The Crested Titmouse is an European bird, being found in 

 plenty in Denmark, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Germany, 

 France, Switzerland, and Poland. 



In our own country it occurs more sparingly, is of very 

 local distribution, and appears to be confined to the northern 

 districts of one island, where, in the extensive pine forests, 

 its shy habits and the secluded character of its chosen habitat, 

 render its discovery a matter of rarer occurrence, than under 

 other circumstances would probably be the case. 



In Yorkshire, one is stated by 'Mr. Allis, on the authority 

 of Mr. J. Heppen stall, to have been seen in a garden at Thome, 

 in the West liiding. In the county of Durham, one was 

 shot on Sunderland Moor, in the middle of January, 1850. 

 About the year 1789, a considerable flock was observed in 

 Scotland, as also in various parts there in the autumn of 

 1848; in other seasons they have been met with, but not so 



