168 PARUS 



kinds, their larvae and eggs, and to some extent also on seeds. 

 Active and restless, it is extremely sociable, and when wander- 

 ing about in the autumn and winter, consorts freely with other 

 species of Titmouse and Goldcrests. It is as a rule resident, 

 not migrating in autumn, but only wandering about the country. 

 Its call-note is a long-drawn pey, pey, and its song, if such it 

 may be termed, sis, sis, sis. Its nest is usually placed in the 

 hole of a tree, generally near the ground, but I have found them 

 at considerable altitudes, sometimes in a deserted rat's hole or 

 other hole in the ground. It is constructed of small twigs, bits 

 of grass, moss, wool, hair, or thistle down, varying in size according 

 to locality, and the eggs from 6 to 10 or even 12 in number are 

 white, spotted with dull red, the spots being sometimes more 

 numerous round the larger end, and are usually deposited in 

 May, but two broods are sometimes reared in the season. In 

 size they average about O63 by 0.48. 



Few groups have been subjected to more subdivision than 

 the Marsh Titmice, and long articles on them have been 

 published by Messrs. Brehm, De Selys-Longchamps, Fatio- 

 Beaumont, Seebohm, Prazak, Dr. Kleinschmidt, and others, 

 and I may refer my readers who may wish to study the 

 various forms to Dr. Kleinschmidt's article (Orn. Jahrb. 1897, 

 pp. 45-103), as it contains the latest information on the 

 subject. He divides them into two groups, Parus meridionalis 

 (P. palustris, auctt.) and Parus salicarius (P. borealis, auctt.), 

 and subdivides the former into the following subspecies, viz. 

 P. dresseri (Great Britain), P. dresseri longirostris (France and 

 Rhineland), P. meridionalis subpalustris (Germany, except the 

 extreme N.E. and extreme W.), P. meridionalis (S. Sweden, 

 E. Prussia, Livonia), P. communis stagnatilis (Galicia, Sieben- 

 burgen, Servia, Bosnia). P. communis (Swiss Alps and Austria), 

 P. brevirostris (Irkutsk, Baikal), P. brevirostris crassirostris 

 (Sidemi, S.E. Siberia, Ussuri, Corea), P. seebohmi (N. Japan, 

 Yesso and Kuriles), P. hensoni (S. part of N. Japan, Yesso, 

 Hakodadi, and S. Japan), P. spec. nov. (Peking). 



After a careful examination of these forms I have elected to 

 unite all the former under P. palustris. 



244. NORTHERN MARSH TITMOUSE. 

 PARUS SALICARIUS. 



Parus salicarius, C. L. Brehm, Vogel Deutschl. p. 465 (1831) ; P. 

 borealis, De Selys, Bull. Acacl. Roy. Bruxelles, 1843, p. 2 ; Dresser, 

 iii. p. 107, pi. 109, fig. 3 ; Gadow, Cat. B. Br. Mus. viii. p. 51 ; P. 

 alpestris, Bailly, Bull. Soc. Hist. Nat. Savoie, 1851, p. 22. 



