862 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVII. 



Parus cceruleus persicus, Blanford. — Persian Blue Tit. 

 1 $ , Kermanshah. 30tli Nov. 1918. 

 The very pale Persian Blue Tit was first seen as soon as one reached the scrub 

 oak country round Pa-i-Taq. It was fairly common in the small wood on the 

 out-skirts of Kermanshah. This bird is one of the typical birds of the oak woods 

 of the S. W. of Persia, and Pa-i-Taq and Kermanshah are about the northern 

 limit of its range. 



Parus cceruletis raddei, Zarudny. — Caspian Blue Tit. 

 \$. Isex? Resht — January. 



This race of the Blue Tit was described by Zarudny (1908) from Alazandaran. 

 Gilan and Asterabad, that is to say, from the great forest which runs all along 

 the S. coast of the Caspian. As he says the Blue Tits of this region are duller in 

 colour, and smaller than the typical race. My two specimens measure, the male, 

 wing 60 mm. tail 48 mm., and the unsexed specimen, wing 60 mm., tail 46 mm., 



Woosnam's specimens from the S. coast of the Capsian agree in these 

 characters. I have not been able to go into the question of the identity of P. c. 

 raddei and P. c. calamensis. At Resht and Enzeli this Tit is a somewhat scarce 

 resident, scarcer than either the Great Tit or the Longtailed Tit ; it occurs 

 also in the higher forest 1, — 3,000 ft. 



P. c. satunini is described by Zarudny in the same place from " Lenkoran, 

 Qazvin and the Mountains of Transcaspia ". There is nothing improbable in 

 the existence of a till-then undescribed form of Blue Tit in " Qazvin and the 

 momitains of Transcaspia ", or as one might sa.j, in the semidesert country 

 to the S. and E. of the forests inhabited by P. c. raddei : it is in the highest 

 degree unlikely that such a tit would descend from the very dry highlands 

 into the damp forest of Lenkoran, a forest moreover which is continuous 

 with "Mazandaran, Gilan, and Asterabad", the home of P. c. raddei. Un- 

 fortunately there are no specimens with which to prove or disprove the exis- 

 tence of Parus cceruleus satunini, the distribution of which seems so anomalous. 



Parus ater gaddi, Zar. and Harms.^ — ^Cole Tit. 



1 $ , 1 sex 3 Noglabar— 3rd March. 



1 sex ? Menjil— 27th March. 

 The Cole Tit of the Caspian Forests has been referred to by Witherby (1910) 

 as P. a. phcBonotus, Blanford, which was described from oak forests near Shiraz. 

 Whitherby suggested that there had been some error in labelling and that the 

 skins had really come from the Caspian Provinces. This we now know not to 

 have been the case as Zarudny has re- discovered Blanford's race in the Zagros 

 Mountains. He finds this race constantly different from that of the S. Caspian 

 forests which he describes as P. ph. gaddi, stating that it diffei-s from P. pli. 

 phceonotus in the much browner colour of belly and flanks and much duller back. 

 I have compared Blanford's type of phceonotus with eight skins (Woosnam. 

 and Buxton) from the S. coast of the Caspian, and the forests on the N. slopes 

 of the Elburz, and I find that Zarudny was justified in separating P. a. gaddi 

 on its less rufous, more olivaceous back. Without a larger series of P. a. phaeo- 

 notus I am unable to decide whether the flanks and belly are browner in gaddi 

 than in this race. I can find no difference in size ; the only specimen of P. a. 

 phceonotus ( (^) in the British museum has a wing of 67 mm ; 3 ^ gaddi measure 

 67-69 mm, 4? 63.5-66 mm. 



The Cole Tit of the Caspian forests is common among beech and oak trees on 

 the slopes of the hills ; Ingoldby found it common in such places near Bandar - 

 i-Gez, I myself near Menjil and Noglabar. It is never seen in the damp, 

 low-lying forests round Resht and Enzeli. 



Acredula caudata iephronota, (Gunther) (passekii, Zarudny). — ^Long-tailed Tit. 

 1 $ . 1 unsexed. Kermanshah — December 1918. 



