THE BRITISH MARSH TIT. 



379 



maritima, and Guillemots were obtained during the prevailing 

 north-east winds; and on the 12th I purchased in the Plymouth 

 Market an immature specimen of the Common Dotterel, Endro- 

 mias morinelliis, killed on Dartmoor, and the first local specimen 

 I remember to have met with. 



THE BRITISH MAESH TIT. 

 By Leonhaed Stejneger.* 



Parus palustris dresseri, subs. nov. 



Diagnosis.— Similar to typical Parus palustris, but much 

 darker ; the brown of the back more olive, and the rump clearer 

 and lighter huffish brown ; flanks much browner ; tail shorter, the 

 longest rectrices averaging 49 mm ; outer pair of rectrices shorter 

 than the rest, which are nearly of equal length. 



Habitat. — Great Britain. 



Type.— U. S. National Museum, No. 96,550. 



It is curious that none of the British ornithologists have had 

 the courage to describe this bird under a distinctive name, not 

 even those who recognise Parus hritannicus as a distinct species, 

 since there is no lack of evidence in the literature that they have 

 been aware of the difi'erence of the British Marsh Tit from the 

 Scandinavian and Central European bird, for which Linnaeus's 

 name, P. palustris, is properly retained, and most of the modern 

 authors, when speaking oi P. palustris generally, or when describing 

 it, have been obliged to qualify their reference to its occurrence 

 in Great Britain by remarking that examples from this island are 

 very much darker than P. palustris vera. 



Thus, for instance, Messrs. Dresser and Sharpe (' Birds of 

 Europe,' iii. p. 100 seqv.) make several remarks to the same 

 e&act :—" Male from England. Very much darker than con- 

 tinental specimens, the back especially; the rump very much 

 paler than the rest of the back, and inclining to rosy white ; 

 cheeks and centre of the body underneath dingy white ; the flanks 

 dark buff, this colour almost extending to the abdomen" (p. 100). 



* From the ' Proceedings of the United States National Museum,' vol. ix. 

 (pp. 201, 202). Advance sheet kindly forwarded by the author. 



