COAL-TITMOUSE. 493 



its limits lie between lat. 63 and lat. 65 N., and it has 

 been shot at Archangel. Thence it probably extends across 

 the Kussian Empire to Lake Baikal and Dauuria ; for 

 Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser were informed by Dr. Tackza- 

 nowski that birds from that country agree precisely with 

 European specimens. Dr. von Schrenck says the same of 

 examples from Amoorland, and Dr. von Middendorff met 

 with it on the shores of the Sea of Ochotsk ; but the Parus 

 pekinensis, lately described by Pere David (Ibis, 1870, p. 154), 

 which seems to differ from P. ater only in having the 

 feathers of the crown lengthened,* may have been the bird 

 obtained by the Kussian travellers. The southern limits of 

 P. ater in Asia cannot yet be given, but it does not seem to 

 reach the Himalayas, its place in part at least of those 

 mountains being taken by the allied P. atkinsoni, if that be 

 not the young of some other species. Canon Tristram found 

 it abundant in the cedar-groves of the Lebanon, and it is said 

 to be common in the Caucasus, though in southern Russia 

 and the Crimea it occurs but rarely. Mr. Robson has met with 

 it at Constantinople, but it has not been included among the 

 birds of Greece, though Lord Lilford says it is occasionally seen 

 in Corfu in winter. It is not common in Italy, but passes the 

 summer in the mountains and descends to the plains in autumn. 

 It is also found in Sicily, where it is said by Sig. Benoit to 

 breed in Kites' nests, and it inhabits Spain and Portugal. 

 Throughout the rest of Europe it is a very well-known bird. 

 In Algeria its place is taken by P. ledouxi. 



The adult male has the bill black : the irides hazel : the 

 top of the head, and the upper part of the ear-coverts, glossy 

 black, which divides on the back of the head into two broad 

 bauds running down to the scapulars, and leaving between 

 them a conspicuous white nape ; the cheeks and sides of the 

 neck, white ; mantle olive-grey, with, in some examples, a 

 bluish tinge on the upper part, the olive always prevailing 

 lower down and passing into brownish fawn-colour on the 



* This character is to some extent shared by Japanese specimens, formerly, 

 and still by Dr. Finsch, referred to P. ater. 



