548 jNIr. Collingvvood Ingram on 



great extent the tawny-buff tints on the back and wings, and 

 being heavily but indistinctly marked with white, offers a 

 verv grey — ahnost hoary — appearaiice when phiced beside 

 a Vosges specimen. The question is, can this Alpine bird 

 be Bailly's Cert/da costce (cf. Bull. Soc. d'Hist. Nat. de la 

 Savoie, 1852, p. 11)? Unfortunately, I liave not been able 

 to examine critically any specimens from the type locality, 

 but thei'e is every reason to suppose that the Savoyan bird 

 is identical with that of the southern Alps. An example 

 from Switzerland and a second from Vorarlberg in the Tring 

 Museum, even if not quite so grey in coloration, agree well 

 in other respects with my own specimens from the Maritime 

 Alps, while there is a bird in the Bureau collection, from 

 Tonraoux in the Basses-Alpes, precisely similar to my own ; 

 and we have Bailly^'s authority for saying that his C. custre 

 is found in this department. 



Certainly that writer's description of the plumage of his 

 Savoyan Tree-Creeper (Orn. de la Savoie, 1853, ii. p. 487) 

 does not altogether tally with my pale-backed birds from 

 south-east France; but then one mucvt allow for a certain 

 amount of error in the older accounts of the Certhiidw, for 

 these birds were formerly very imperfectly known ; and, 

 moreover, it is highly probable that Bailly had only 

 C. brackydactyla or C. b. uUramontana with which to com- 

 pare his new species. Referring to the bill, he remarks that 

 this is very variable, sometimes measuring from 14 to 15 mm. 

 and sometimes from 16 to 17 mm. On the whole, therefore, 

 I am bound to associate my Mai-itime Alps birds with those 

 of Savoy and the rest of 1he Alpine system. This being 

 so, it is incumbent upon me to reinstate Bailly's name, 

 Certhia fainiliaris cantos, for this mountain race*. 



In the upper forests of the Pyrenees a similar long-billed 

 form of C. fumiliaris is found, differing only fi-om C /. costce 



* The oiilj' Corsican example iu the British Museum appeared to be 

 indistiu"uishable from the Vorarlberg specimen in the Ilothschild 

 collection. It is possible, therefore, that Dr. Ilartert's Cf. corsa (ViJg. 

 pal. F. i. p. 320) may prove to be inseparable from Cf. costcs. 



