Creepers^ Tltinicc^ and Reed- Warbiers. 59 



Continental Creepers differ remarkably from those of the British 

 form * — needless to say they came across G. hrachydactyla^ 

 wliile in England only a form of C.fandlJar'is is found. 



Aniong the Fandce the most difficult groups £or a student 

 of geographical forms ai-e probably the '' Blue Tits " {Parus 

 cceruleus and cyanus) and the " Great Tits '^ (P. major), 

 Especially the latter is very widely spread and difficult. It 

 is not correct to treat the European forms as subspecies and to 

 separate as another species the Asiatic forms without greenish 

 and yellovvish colours, because Parus major intermedius, minor, 

 and several others connect those with green and yellow and 

 those without these colours. The most closely allied forms 

 seem to be the European races. All over the European 

 continent, with the exception of the southeru peninsulas, we 

 find Parus major major — at least 1 have not been able to 

 separate any central Continental subspecies, though I tried hard 

 to do so. In Great Brilain and Ireland, however, we find 

 a race which can easily be distinguished by its large and 

 thick bill. It has been named Parus major newtoai, and 

 this name, based on English specimens, must be adopted, 

 though the original description is a very bad one. In Corsica 

 we meet with another form which has duller colours and a 

 reduced white area on the two outer rectrices. This is Parus 

 major corsus. On Cyprus lives a Great Tit with a rather short 

 tarsus and wing ; its colours are usually bright, the yellow of 

 the under surface is light and clear, and specimens often occur 

 with a cream-coloured, instead of yellow, under surface. Such 

 aberrations have been described by Madarasz as Parus apliro- 

 dite. This name must be adopted for the Cyprus subspecies, 

 although its author quite misunderstood it, not separating the 

 typically coloured examples from P. major and considering the 

 cream-coloured aberrations as a difFerent species. This view 

 is erroneous, because aberrations with cream-coloured underside 

 occur also in Central Europe, though much more rarely, 

 because we find intermediates betvveen the cream-coloured 

 and yellow examples, and because the yellow Tomtits from 

 Cyprus are not quite like " typicaP' (i.e. Scaudinavian) major, 



* See ainoiig others ' British Birds with their Nests aud Ep"gs,' i. p. 173, 



