492 PARIDjE. 



but never before shewn to exist, between our Coal-Titmouse 

 and the continental bird with which it had always been 

 deemed identical, and to regard the former as distinct. This 

 difference will presently be described, and the Editor does 

 not wish to overlook its magnitude, but the value to be 

 attached to it is quite another matter. Hereon each must 

 judge for himself. In the Editor's eyes the difference does 

 not amount to a specific distinction, as it does in those of his 

 industrious friends, for he finds that examples of this bird, 

 killed during the breeding- season in one of the oldest 

 Scottish pine-forests, though more resembling English than 

 foreign specimens, are yet intermediate between them a 

 fact which seems to shew that specific differentiation has 

 not been entirely established. He, therefore, is compelled 

 to refuse recognition to the Parus britannicus described by 

 Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 

 Ser. 4, viii. p. 437), and since figured in their beautiful work 

 (parts xi. and xii.), while congratulating them on their 

 acumen in having indicated what one school of naturalists 

 would certainly call an " incipient species"; and in forming 

 this resolve he has been largely helped by the kindness of 

 those gentlemen, which has enabled him to study and com- 

 pare the typical specimens with a considerable series of 

 others, containing also three examples from the collection of 

 Mr. J. H. Ghirney, junior, which, though obtained in Norfolk, 

 do not differ from continental specimens, and may be of 

 foreign parentage, thus shewing that the true P. ater, in the 

 eyes of those who would separate P. britannicus from it, has 

 occurred in England, and is possibly an occasional straggler 

 to this country. 



On the supposition that our Coal-Titmouse is distinct 

 from the true P. ater, there is as yet no evidence of the 

 former occurring elsewhere than in the British Islands, but if 

 we regard it merely as a local race then the species will be 

 found to be very widely spread. In Norway, it is said by 

 Herr Nordvi to have been observed on two occasions at Vadso 

 in East Finmark, but according to Herr Collett it does not 

 ordinarily range beyond Nordland. In Sweden and Finland 



