THE COAL TITMOUSE 



PARUS ATER (sub-sp. BRITANNICUS) 



LOCAL names in surrounding counties : 



STATUS IN BRITISH AVIFAUNA : A widely distributed 

 resident in all wooded districts, its numbers largely 

 increased in autumn by migrants. 



RADIAL DISTRIBUTION WITHIN FIFTEEN MILES OF ST. 

 PAUL'S : The Coal Titmouse is another of those species 

 that is generally met with in the immediate precincts 

 of the city during the autumn and winter. It is, how- 

 ever, by no means as common in the Metropolitan area, 

 apparently, as the two preceding species, and many of the 

 individuals that pay London a visit are doubtless autumn 

 migrants from Continental localities. I have records of 

 the Coal Titmouse as near the city limits as St. James's 

 Park, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Regent's Park, 

 Holland Park, and Battersea Park. That it also pays 

 fitful and fleeting visits to many other spots where 

 trees grow within the inner portions of the great city 

 is undoubted. In the outlying suburbs the bird, of 

 course, becomes of more frequent occurrence. It is 

 recorded as breeding at Dulwich and Norwood, and to 

 these localities may be added Tooting and Clapham. 

 Elsewhere it certainly breeds in the Kew, Richmond, 

 and Wimbledon districts, at Bushey, Hounslow, Osterley, 

 Hanwell, Horsenden, Twyford, Wembley, Harrow, Kings- 

 bury, and Elstree. It also nests in the Epping area, 

 Wanstead, in the Kentish Crays, and in the Croydon, 

 Banstead, Epsom, Merton, and Cheam districts. 



Precisely similar remarks apply to the Coal Titmouse 

 as to the preceding species, although the bird is a much 

 scarcer one, and not so familiar and trustful as the last- 

 named. Its habits are very similar ; in autumn and winter it 

 becomes more or less gregarious and social, in summer living 

 no 



