558 PAEUS ATEICEPS. 



birds, aud it is therefore not a character of sufficient value to justify a separation of the two varieties. If it were, 

 however, the name of P. ccesius would, in rny opinion, be objectionable, as no one knows where Tickell first 

 employed it, and he certainly never published it. Jerdon uses it as a synonym of P. cinereus ; and this is our only 

 authority for its employment at all. As to the latter title, it is three years junior to P. atriceps, and is therefore 

 merely a synonym of it. 

 This Titmouse may be styled the Asiatic representative of the English " Great Tit," which has the distribution of 

 the black on the head and throat and the white cheek-patch the same ; but the back is greenish and the 

 nuchal patch yellowish ; the underparts are yellowish instead of greyish white. 



Distribution. — The Grey Tit is very numerous in all the hill-districts of Ceylon, frequenting the highest 

 parts of the main range and other forests above 3000 feet .more abundantly than those of lower altitude. 

 It is scattered over all the forest districts of the low country, but is not common near the sea. I met with it 

 in most parts of the eastern side of the island and in the north-central jungles ; and Mr. Parker informs me 

 that it is common about Uswewa, in the Puttalam district. In the neighbourhoods of Colombo and Galle I 

 have found it during both monsoons, but mostly in the cool season, and I believe that it is an occasional 

 visitant only to those places. In the Morowak and Kukkul Korales, and likewise in the Saffragam and Pasdun- 

 Korale jungles it is common, and probably visits the coast region from these localities. I never observed it 

 close to Trincomalie, although it is tolerably frequent further inland. 



Jerdon writes of the Grey Tit's distribution in India : — " This Tit extends throughout the Himalayas 



from Nepal to Bhootan, Assam, and through Central India to the Nilghiris I have procured it 



on the Nilghiris, and it extends all along the range of Western Ghats north to Kandeish. I have also obtained 

 it in the hilly regions of Nagpur and at Saugor, and Tickell got it at Chaibassa, in Central India, but it does 

 not occur in Bengal." In Travancore it is, according to Mr. Bourdillon, not uncommon at higher elevations. 

 It is, in fact, chiefly found in hilly wooded tracts of country : at Mt. Aboo, for instance, Captain Butler records 

 it as occurring sparingly, though very rare in the plains, where he procured it once in the month of June, 

 about 18 miles from Deesa; and Mr. Hume writes that it is found in the Gir and Girwan districts, in 

 kattiawar, and the Koochawun and Marot jungles north of the Sambhur Lake, but nowhere else in the entire 

 region. An exception to this rule, however, is found in Dr. Armstrong's notes on the Birds of the Irrawaddy 

 delta, in which he writes : — " This species was met with abundantly in the open tidal jungle bordering portions 

 of the coast between Elephant Point and China-Bakeer, and also in similar localities along the margin of the 

 Rangoon river at Eastern Grove." It is found in various parts of Burmah, and is a rare straggler to the central 

 portions of the province of Tenasscrim. It is likewise, no doubt, an inhabitant of the Malay Peninsula, which 

 forms a link between its Indian and Malayan habitat. It was first described from Java by Horsfield; to the 

 east of that island it is found in Lombok, and to the west in Sumatra. A region quite as remote as these 

 islands is the east coast of China, to the avifauna of which Swinhoe added this Tit ; he found it in the island 

 (if Hainan, and writes that his specimens thence procured were identical with those from India. 



A notice of this bird's distribution would not be complete without referring to Levaillant's remark on it as 

 a South-African species ; he says, " It was the only species " (of Titmouse ?) " I saw in the vicinity of the 

 ' ape or in the colony \" 



Habits. — This interesting little bird, like its European congeners, possesses a restless and inquisitive 

 disposition, aud is a most diligent worker when in search of its insect food. It consequently frequents a variety 

 of situations, and intrudes itself upon the notice of the most casual observer. In the hills it is found in pairs, 

 or two or three together, in forest, thick jungle, and patna-woods ; it is likewise common on estates, the well- 

 grown coffee-bushes affording it such a welcome shelter that it appears to live permanently among them ; thence 

 it makes casual raids upon the neat little gardens attached to so many bungalows, and deals destruction to the 

 buds and young shoots. In the low country it resides chiefly in forest; but its wandering disposition brings it 

 often into the vicinity of habitations, where it locates itself for the time being in the shady compounds and 

 pleasant groves among which the villagers pass their existence. There it frequently resorts to the heads of 

 cocoanut-trees, searching among their flowers and at the bases of the broad fronds for the numerous insects 

 which affect these favourite situations. On the Horton-Plain woods, where it is common, it delights in the 



