2 
tip with a large spot of white; tail blue above, grey underneath, the outermost feather slightly margined 
with white; throat black; rest of the under surface of the body lemon-yellow, excepting a bluish line 
of feathers down the centre of the breast; under wing- and tail-coverts paler yellow; beak blackish ; 
feet bluish grey; iris dark brown, nearly black. Total length 4°5 inches, culmen 0:4, wing 2°6, tail 2-1, 
tarsus 0°7. 
Female. Similar to the male. 
Winter plumage. In winter the colours are exactly the same as in summer, but the general plumage is more 
fluffy. The throat is edged with white, and the white edging to the outer tail-feather is broader. 
Nesiling. Much darker than the adults, and more olive-green in colour on the upper surface of the body ; 
the centre of the crown and back of the neck greenish black; the line of feathers encircling the crown, 
as well as the cheeks and the patch on the hinder part of the neck, pale yellowish; wing-coverts 
greyish blue, the greater ones tipped with yellowish white; under surface of the body bright lemon- 
yellow, with a slight tinge of greenish on the flanks; the throat also yellow, with a blackish shade on 
the lower portion of it; bill horn-brown, yellow along the gape; legs lead-coloured. 
Another specimen, a little older, has the lower part of the throat more strongly marked with greyish. 
Obs. The specimens described above are from the Continent. English birds are always rather more dingy 
in colour, while the Spanish examples are always brighter than those from any other part of Europe. 
This fact has probably given rise to the suggestion that they might prove to be P. teneriffe. The last- 
named bird, however, is quite a distinct species, with a grey back and dark ultramarine-blue crown, 
whereas the Spanish birds have green backs, but the blue colouring is always richer in hue. 
THE present species is strictly an inhabitant of Europe proper, where it is generally distributed. 
Sabanaeff states that it is not found eastwards beyond the Ural; and in Northern Africa it is 
replaced by the allied species, P. teneriffe. 
Throughout Great Britain and Ireland it is a common bird, breeding, according toma ACIGs 
More, as far north as Sutherlandshire and Caithness. Mr. R. Collett writes that it ‘breeds 
tolerably commonly in all the lower portions of Norway, about as high up as Nordland. Som- 
merfeldt the elder found it in Finmark. It is possibly most abundant in the coast-regions and 
in some localities, as for instance round about Christiania, where it is almost as common as 
Parus palustris.” Nilsson states that it is not uncommon in Southern and Central Sweden, but, 
on the other hand, is rarer in Norway, and not found at all in the northern part of the peninsula. 
At Gothenburg and Carlstad it is common at all seasons of the year. M. von Wright says that 
it appears to leave Finland in the winter, though it is not uncommon in the south in the spring 
and autumn, but that nothing is known as to the localities where it breeds in that part of the 
country. He further says, in a footnote, that it may occasionally winter there, as a specimen 
was procured near Helsingfors early in March 1859. Meyer also records it as migratory in 
Livonia. In Denmark it is common, according to Kjerbdlling. In Germany, as stated by 
Naumann, it is in most localities one of the commonest birds. It is partly a migrant, partly a 
straggler, or else resident. Borggreve observes that it is migratory all over Northern Germany, 
common in the western portion. Kvener writes that it is “resident in the mountains and plains 
of Alsace and the Vosges. It lives in the forests of beech, oak, and other trees, frequenting in 
winter the gardens and orchards.” All over the Low Countries, as well as the whole of France, 
