2 
Mr. Harry Blake Knox writes to us as follows :— 
“Thompson, in his ‘ Birds of Ireland, does not include the Crested Tit. There is, however, 
a fine specimen in the Royal Dublin Society’s Irish collection. I have another fine male from 
co. Wicklow, shot in the autumn of 1869; and specimens are exhibited in the Belfast Museum 
amongst Irish birds.” 
In Scandinavia Nilsson states that it is found up to Angermanland, in Sweden, and in 
Norway not further than the range of fir-growth on the fells. Collett says it is common near 
Christiania; and Wheelwright collected numerous specimens in the neighbourhood of Carlstad. 
According to Von Wright it is plentiful in the interior of Finland, but rare towards the coast ; 
and in this country Dresser has also met with it. In Livonia Meyer states that it is common and 
sedentary; and in Germany, writes Naumann, wherever conifers are plentiful, there the Crested 
Titmouse isfound. Delafontaine records it as rare in Luxemburg; and it is not very common in 
Holland. Degland and Gerbe consider it not rare in France, and say that it is abundant in the 
forests of Mormal and the Basses-Alpes. Jaubert and Lapommeraye state that it breeds com- 
monly in the high parts of Provence, and descends in the winter to the valleys of the Basses- 
Alpes, Var, and even to the mouths of the Rhone. In Savoy Bailly finds it to be common in the 
pine-forests on the mountains. In Spain Lord Lilford has shot it himself, in a pine-wood in the 
Pefias de Oroel, near Saca, in Aragon, in 1867; and several specimens have been sent to us from 
the vicinity of Gibraltar by Major Irby. In Portugal it is rare. Malherbe includes it in the 
avifauna of Sicily; and it is also occasionally met with in Italy. Count Salvadori writes to us 
that it is scarce, only to be found in the Alps, but in winter is not unfrequently caught near Como 
and Bergamo. Seidensacher and Dresser met with it abundantly in Styria; and Count Casimir 
Wodzicki says that it inhabits the whole of the Carpathians as high as the forest grows. To the 
eastward the range of the Crested Titmouse extends, according to Demidoff, to the Caucasus, 
Volhynia, and Podolia; and Radde found it in the conifer woods in the west of South Russia, 
where he saw it in such localities near Livadia, full 3000 feet above the level of the sea. 
Like its congeners, the Crested Titmouse is a sprightly, restless bird, and in its general habits 
much resembles our common Blue Titmouse, excepting that it is seldom found away from pine 
and fir woods. In search of its food it generally keeps to the topmost boughs, where it may be 
seen flitting from branch to branch, or hanging head downwards, searching in the crannies of the 
bark for insects, on which it principally subsists. During the winter season it goes in small 
flocks, and consorts with other species of Titmice, Goldcrests, and little birds whose habits lead 
them to affect the same situations. In company with these and other Titmice it performs slight 
migrations annually. 
Respecting its habits and distribution in Germany, Naumann writes as follows (Vogel 
Deutsch. iv. p. 45) :— 
‘“‘It is only found where there are large pine or fir woods, whether this be in mountainous 
or flat districts, and is there common; but where few conifers are found it is rare, and is never 
met with where these trees do not occur. It is nowhere as abundant as the Cole and Blue Tits. 
In our neighbourhood it is common in the pine woods, but rare elsewhere. 
“Tt does not leave us, and is partly a resident and to some extent a wanderer, but not so 
much of a wanderer as many other birds; for it seldom quits the pine woods, and when it does it 
