60 SOMBRE TIT. 



think, either due consideration or comparison of specimens. P. lugubris 

 is altogether a larger bird, the beak and tarsi are stronger and larger; 

 and while the abdomen is white and the back grey brown in 

 lugubris, the former is russet, and the latter mottled with russet 

 and black in sibiricus. A reference to the two figures will render 

 this quite clear. 



Temminck says it is easy to confound the Sombre Tit with the 

 Nonette or Marsh Tit; but it is quite certain that he referred to 

 the Parus atricapillus of Gmelin, which is a North American bird, 

 altogether differing from our well-known Marsh Tit, with which the 

 present species can in no way be confounded. 



Salvadori, "Fauna d'ltalia," says of this bird: — "This species differs 

 from palustris and borealis by the black and sooty brown colour of 

 the head and neck, also by greater dimensions. It is admitted by me 

 into this catalogue with hesitation. I believe Cantarini was the first 

 to announce it among the accidental birds of Venetia, and Nini upon 

 his authority. Perini and Betta say that probably it occurs in the 

 Veronese territory. As I have not visited Venetia, I cannot speak 

 positively upon this subject, but assuredly it has not been observed 

 in the rest of Italy. Schlegel observes that it is found in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Trieste." 



Count Miihle, who has recorded the occurrence and detailed the 

 habits of this bird in Greece, says that its habits are different from 

 the other members of the family. It arrives in the Morea, where it 

 appears to be a summer visitor, at the end of April or beginning of 

 May, and locates itself in the little mountain valleys, where it lives 

 solitarily, frequenting the wild-fruit trees, and never being found upon 

 the more lofty ones. Each bird takes up its own territory, and is 

 observed on the same resting-place frequently during the day. They 

 are very unsociable and shy on the appearance of man, and seem to 

 know if they are followed, and consequently are difficult to shoot. 

 Count Miihle did not observe them after September, and was altogether 

 unacquainted with their nidification, the only egg he procured being 

 an imperfect and uncoloured one which was found in a female shot 

 in the spring. 



The adult male in breeding plumage has the top of the head and 

 throat dark blackish brown, the rest of the upper plumage bright hair 

 brown; cheeks, chest, abdomen, and under tail coverts white, with 

 the flanks mottled with bluish black; the white patch on the cheeks 

 extends to the upper scapularies. Beak, feet, and iris, brown. 



My figure is taken from an adult male kindly sent me by Mr. 

 Tristram. The figure of the egsr is from Thienemann. 



