PAEUS ATEICEPS. 



(THE GREY-BACKED TITMOUSE.) 



Panes atriceps, Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 160 (1820), " ex Java " ; Sykes, P. Z. S. 1832, 

 p. 92 ; Tweeddale, Ibis, 1877, p. 304. 



Parus cinereus, Vieillot, Tabl. Enc. Method, p. 506 (1823), ex Levaillant ; Blyth, Cat. B. 

 Mus. A. S. B. p. 103 (1849) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 267 ; 

 Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 121 (1852) ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. ii. p. 278 (1863); Holds- 

 worth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 460 ; Ball, Str. Feath. 1874, p. 417 ; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 23. 



Parus nipalensis, Hodgs. Ind. Rev. 1838, p. 31. 



Parus ccesius (Tick.), Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 361 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, ii. p. 405 ; 

 Brooks, Str. Feath. 1875, p. 253 ; Hume & Davison, B. of Tenass., Str. Feath. 1878, 

 p. 376. 



Le Mesange grise djone blanche, Levaillant, Ois. d'Afrique, pi. 139 ; Le Mesange cap negre, 

 The Tit, also '•'■Coffee-bird," Planters. Ramgangra, Bengal. ; Glate ivingko, Java. 



Adult male and female. Length 5-3 to 5 - S inches ; wing 2'6 to 2 - 9 ; tail 2-3 to 2-6 ; tarsus OT to 0-75 ; middle toe and 

 claw 0-6 to 0-7 ; bill to gape 0-4S to 0-55. 



Some hill-birds are larger than those from the low country : a male from Horton Plains measures — length 5'S inch.-, 

 wing 2 - 9, tail 2-6 ; a male from Colombo — length 5 - 5 inches, wing 2-6, tail 2-2. 



Iris dark brown ; bill black, a slaty edge to the lower mandible : legs and feet dusky bluish or plumbeous ; claws brown. 



Head, nape, sides of neck, chin, throat, chest, and down the centre of breast, belly, and under tail-coverts shining blue- 

 black, enclosing a large white patch, which extends from the gape over the cheeks and ear-coverts ; back, rump, 

 and wing-coverts cinereous bluish, with a whitish patch adjacent to the black nape ; wings and tail black, edged 

 with bluish, the longer primaries with narrow, and the tertials with broad white margins ; greater coverts broadly 

 tipped white ; outer tail-feather white, with a broad black inner margin, the next with a variable white streak 

 running up from the tip ; sides of the breast, belly, under tail-coverts, and the lower portion of the thighs whitish, 

 tinged with bluish grey on the flanks. 



The amount of white on the outer tail-feathers varies; in some examples the outer web of the penultimate is wholly 

 white. This may be the result of age. The size of the white nuchal spot varies much, and the black at each side 

 of it descends further down the hind neck in some specimens than in others. 



Young. Iris as in the adult ; bill dark horn-colour ; margin and gape yellowish. 



The back of the head and chest has less gloss than in the adult ; the ventral stripe is narrower ; the back dusky bluish, 

 with a greenish tinge. 



Obs. Examples from India are identical with our Ceylon bird, which I cannot likewise separate from the Javau and 

 Malayan form, although individual specimens may be perhaps chosen from a series of the latter which would not, 

 in all respects, correspond with some from our island. This is only to be expected, as it is a species subject to 

 local variation. A West-Javan skin has the wing 2:6 inches, and corresponds entirely on the upper surface with 

 one from Ceylon ; another from the same district measures 2-4 only, and is slightly darker on the back : another 

 from East Java measures 2-4, and is paler than most Ceylonese examples. A Lombok specimen has a wing of 

 2-6 in length and tail 2-6 ; it is also a very pale bird, but differs in no other way. Swinhoe remarks, iu his 

 " Catalogue of the Birds of China" (P.Z. S. 1871), that the Javan bird can be readilydistinguished from the continental 

 one by " the black of the head extending beyond the white nuchal spot, and separating it from the grey of the 

 back," and accordingly he applied a name of Tiekell's (P. ccesius) to the Chinese and Indian bird, which has been 

 in vogue in ' Stray Eeathers ' ever since. I do not see this character exemplified in the British-Museum specimens, 

 and I have, since my examination of them, asked Mr. Sharpe to look at them. He informs me, in ejiis'., that he 

 cannot see the distinction here referred to, although, in some examples, the " black bordering the white nape-spot 

 is carried a little further down the mantle." I have referred to this above as an individual peculiarity in Ceylonese 



