COLE TIT MARSH TIT. 1 05 



fir not far distant." I have never, however, been able to trace it 

 in any part of Lanarkshire during the last twenty years. 



THE COLE TIT. 



PARUS ATER. 

 Cailcheag cheaun dubh. 



IN the outskirts of Glasgow, especially in the time of winter, the 

 Cole Tit is even more frequently met with ihan any of its con- 

 geners. Wherever there is a patch of fir plantation on the road- 

 side, it may be found in company with gold-crests, flitting silently 

 among the boughs, and diligently ransacking any little cavity in 

 the stems of trees in which it is likely to find insect prey. On 

 Loch Lomond-side, where the species is very abundant, I have 

 seen six or eight at a time clinging to a moss-grown wall, and 

 scattering, with amusing dexterity, the little green tufts under 

 which the insects were concealed. Sometimes one would alight 

 on the ground to pick up what had fallen, and remain there for a 

 time hopping briskly along the footpath, devouring as it went the 

 fragments of what had been dislodged by its companions over- 

 head. It likewise frequents all the wooded islands on the loch, 

 and is sure to make its appearance swinging at the end of some 

 pliant twig, and hailing the presence of a visitor with a lively 

 birr-r-r. Throughout the western counties the Cole Tit is one of 

 the most familiar of the smaller birds, extending to Sutherland - 

 shire; but apart from woods in Mull and Skye, I am not aware 

 of any localities for it in the inner group of islands. It is, of course, 

 unknown in the Outer Hebrides. 



THE MAKSH TIT. 

 PARUS PALUSTRIS. 



ALTHOUGH all our tits are of extremely restless habits, and are there- 

 fore found roaming in foraging parties even across districts where 

 they are not usually resident, it does not appear that this species 

 is so widely distributed in Scotland as its allies. Mr Macgillivray 

 mentions that he had never heard of its being found north of Fife- 

 shire, nor can it be said to be a resident in all the counties south 



