GO Dr. E. Hartert — Conunon-.wiise JS'^oIcs oii 



Tlio Tümtits from Asia Minor and Greece seem also to belong 

 to iqyJtrodite, but I have not been able to examine good series. 

 I cannot yet decide about the Spanish form, becanse I have 

 not had suflficient material from Spain. 



A somewhat difficult and therefore interesting groiip are tlie 

 po-called " Marsh-Tits." It is now a well-known fact tliat in 

 most parts of Eiirope (all over Central Enrope) tvvo forms are 

 resident side by side. One of tbese bas more ronnded and 

 glossy featbers on the crown of the head, a h'ss gradnated tail, 

 and a less musieal song, the latter being a niere clappering. 

 It seems that very offen the more musieal song of the " dull- 

 hoaded ^' Marsh-Tit bas been mistaken for that of our common 

 Marsb-Tit — both have black heads aud cannot be distinguished 

 at a distance : and unfortunately many of the best observers of 

 the habits of biids have an insufficient knowledge of the species 

 and subspecies which they observe ; most egg-collectors are as 

 bad or vvorse ; and, still more unfortunately, coUectors of skins 

 are often not the best of observers aud do not niake notes about 

 the call-notes and songs of the birds they collect. Thus only 

 is it possible that diiferent opinions exist about the song of the 

 Marsh-Tits and about the Creepers on the Continent — the most 

 natural explanation, i. e. that the different songs are those of 

 diiferent species, generally not being resorted to. 



In England the " Willow-Tit," as I have named the repre- 

 sentative of the dull-headed continental forms {borealis in the 

 North, salicarius in Germany and Austria, rhenamis on the 

 Rliine, montanus in the Alps, and assimilis in the Carpathian 

 Mountains), is very widely spread. I have examined specimens 

 from St. Leonards, Hastings, Tunbridge Wells, Essex, Middle- 

 sex, and Northern Scotland, and eggs from Tunbridge Wells. 

 Doubtless this ])ir(l bas a wide distribution in Great Britain, 

 and is frequently mistaken for the common Marsh-Tit, Furus 

 jmlustris dresseri. Ornithologists unaccjuaintfxl with the differ- 

 ences of young and old birds and with the changes of ])lumage 

 taking place in Titmice have hinted that the Willow-Tits were 

 young Farns palustris dresseri — an idea which I myself had 

 twenty years ago, when the dawn of the new era of ornithology, 

 that of the close and minute study of geographical forms and 

 species, had hardly begun to glow on the distant horizon. 



