106 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



of that district. It seems, in fact, a very local species, and is less 

 given to shifting about than the Cole Tit or the Blue Tit. 



In Mr A. G. More's paper, published in the Ibis, Perthshire, 

 Aberdeenshire, and Inverness-shire are mentioned as counties in 

 which this bird has been found breeding, the most northern breed- 

 ing haunts being Inverness, so that the range of the species extends 

 considerably beyond the limits formerly assigned to it. 



So far as I have observed, the name Marsh Tit has been mis- 

 applied, at least a more appropriate one might have been chosen, 

 as the bird does not confine itself to marshes or moist places. 

 Writing from the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, Mr Alston informs 

 me that, though not so numerous as the preceding species, the 

 Marsh Tit is not uncommon in his neighbourhood, and nests there 

 regularly, frequenting natural birch woods and pine plantations; 

 and I have also been informed by Mr Brown that in autumn he 

 has seen numbers threading their way through the bushes within 

 the policies of his residence at Dunipace, in Stirlingshire. 



THE LONG-TAILED TIT. 

 PARUS CAUDATUS. 



THIS singularly restless little bird is tolerably common in many 

 parts of the West of Scotland, but is more noticeable in winter, 

 when flying in numbers alongside the bare hedgerows, than in 

 summer, when it betakes itself to the woods. It is, perhaps, 

 nowhere more common than in the neighbourhood of Loch Lomond, 

 where I have seen, I may say, hundreds in the course of a day's 

 walk. In the dead of winter they traverse the hawthorn hedges 

 with amusing quickness, always keeping before the pedestrian, and 

 bounding away in flitting groups, alighting every fifteen or twenty 

 yards, and repeating their movements when approached. I re- 

 member one breezy day in October of seeing great numbers at Luss 

 on the march in this way, and of being struck with their curious 

 appearance on wing, apt as they were to have been mistaken for 

 leaves blown off the twigs. Flights like these are occasionally seen 

 in the outskirts of Glasgow. Once or twice I have observed busy 

 companies searching the trees near some of the streets, moving 

 briskly from one tree to another as if they meant to examine 

 hundreds before nightfall. On these occasions they are easily 



