MARSH-TITMOUSE. 497 



has only been recently remarked, and Mr. Harvie Brown 

 thinks that it is rapidly pushing its range northwards. Sir 

 W. Jardine, in 1839, noticed its decrease in Dumfriesshire, 

 where it is now considered only an occasional winter- 

 visitant, its place being taken by the Coal- Titmouse, which, 

 as already mentioned, has there largely increased. In 

 Ireland, Thompson met with it only near Belfast, but a 

 specimen has been shot near Dublin, and Mr. Ball has seen 

 it in the county Kildare. 



The continental range of the Marsh- Titmouse is not very 

 easily defined, owing to the existence of a bird to which 

 most authorities have assigned the rank of a species, 

 though on grounds which seem to the Editor very slight. 

 Yet as most of those who have had the opportunity of 

 observing this bird the Parus borealis of Baron de Selys- 

 Longchamps in life, declare that it differs in habit from 

 P. palustris, the specific distinctness of the two may 

 perhaps here be recognized, but their very close resemblance 

 in appearance must be admitted by all, and it may further 

 be remarked in connection herewith, that British examples 

 of the Marsh- Titmouse differ somewhat in coloration from 

 continental specimens, though not to the same extent as 

 has already been mentioned in the case of the Coal- Tit- 

 mouse. With regard to these birds Messrs. Sharpe and 

 Dresser have taken even more than their usual pains when 

 discriminating nearly-allied forms, and if the results at which 

 they have arrived are not entirely convincing, the fact 

 cannot be ascribed to the want of care and labour or to the 

 fewness of the specimens they have compared. In their 

 work, these gentlemen consider that P. palustris has been 

 shewn to exist in Norway and Sweden up to lat. 61 N., and 

 that it also inhabits Denmark, Germany, Turkey, Greece, 

 Italy, Switzerland, France, Belgium and Holland. In the 

 north of Europe it is replaced by P. lorealis, which also 

 appears in the Alps, where it was at one time regarded as 

 distinct, and called P. alpestris by M. Bailly. In the south- 

 east of Europe there occurs another bird, the P. higubris of 

 Johanu Natterer, which seems to be an extreme form of 



VOL. i. 3s 



