OD 
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So far as we can at present ascertain, the present form of the Long-tailed Titmouse is confined to 
the British Isles: occasionally, however, it may straggle across to the northern parts of France, 
Holland, and Belgium ; but we have not yet seen any specimen from there. It is distinguishable 
from the continental form by never assuming a white head, whereas both male and female of 
the latter, when fully adult, have the head white. Mr. Yarrell states that it is a common bird in 
the southern and western counties of England, from Sussex to Cornwall. Mr. Eyton includes it 
in his Catalogue of the Birds of Shropshire and North Wales; and Mr. Thompson says it is 
diffused in Ireland, through the wooded districts of the north particularly, but not in great 
numbers. It is found also in all the counties north of London, from Middlesex to Northumber- 
land. Mr. Stevenson states that it is “found in Norfolk throughout the year, and even in the 
hardest winters finds subsistence upon minute seeds, or the insect atoms which, with ceaseless 
energy, it extracts from the crevices in the bark of trees;” and Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., gives us 
the following notes respecting its distribution throughout England:—“ The Long-tailed Tit may 
be termed a common resident, being marked as more or less abundant in every county that has a 
local list. It is common in Kent, Sussex, Devonshire, Somersetshire, Middlesex, Leicestershire, 
Shropshire, and Durham; and it is very common in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. In some 
places it is rather less abundant, as in Cornwall, where it is stated to be rather local; and, like 
the Redstart and other common birds, it has been occasionally known to disappear from a district 
where it was formerly plentiful. Something of this kind is stated by Mr. Moore to have taken 
place at Woodbridge, in Suffolk (Zoologist, p. 2607); and they have certainly been ‘ conspicuous 
by their absence’ at Northrepps and Keswick, in Norfolk.” In Pembrokeshire, we are informed 
by Myr. Tracy that it is “common throughout the year” (Zoologist, p. 2641), and by Mr. Dix that 
it is ‘very abundant ;” and we may infer that it is similarly distributed over the rest of Wales. 
Regarding its range in Scotland, Mr. Gray writes that ‘“‘ this singularly restless little bird is 
tolerably common in many parts of the west of Scotland, but is more noticeable in winter, when 
flying in numbers alongside the bare hedgerows, than in summer, when it betakes itself to the 
woods. It is, perhaps, nowhere more common than in the neighbourhood of Loch Lomond, 
where I have seen, I may say, hundreds in the course of a day’s walk. In the dead of winter 
they traverse the hawthorn hedges with amusing quickness, always keeping before the pedestrian, 
and bounding away in flitting groups, alighting every fifteen or twenty yards, and repeating their 
movements when approached. J remember, one breezy day in October, of seeing great numbers 
at Suss on the march in this way, and of being struck with their curious appearance on wing, apt 
as they were to have been mistaken for leaves blown off the twigs. Flights like these are occa- 
sionally seen in the outskirts of Glasgow. One or twice I have observed busy companies 
searching the trees near one of the streets, moving briskly from one tree to another as if they 
meant to examine hundreds before nightfall. On these occasions they are easily known by their 
call-note, which is plaintive, yet shrill and quite in keeping with the slender figure of the bird. 
It is found also on some of the inner islands, being rather common in Islay, as I have been 
” 
informed by Mr. Elwes, and likewise in some parts of Skye.” Mr. More records it as “less 
frequent in the north of Scotland, but described by Mr. Dunbar as nesting regularly in Ross, 
Sutherland, and Caithness. Sir William Jardine considers that it does not reach nearly so far 
north as the Coal Titmouse.” Our friend Mr. J. A. Harvie Brown informs us that it is, so far as 
