PARIDA. 109 
THE BLUE TITMOUSE. 
PaRUS CERULEUS, Linnzus. 
The Blue Titmouse is one of the best known of British birds, 
and is generally distributed throughout the greater part of our 
islands. In Scotland, however, it does not appear to reach the 
Outer Hebrides, though found in Jura, Mull, &c. ; while it is very 
local in the north-west, resident in Sutherland and Caithness, and 
only a wanderer to the Orkneys and Shetlands. In Ireland it is the 
commonest of the genus. In autumn considerable numbers of Blue 
and Great Tits arrive on our east coast ; and still larger flocks pass 
by Heligoland. 
In Norway the Blue Titmouse breeds as far north as lat. 64°, but 
further east its range does not extend beyond 61° N., nor is the bird 
found in Russia beyond the Ural Mountains. It is generally dis- 
tributed over the remainder of Europe, except in some of the Greek 
islands, and is common in Asia Minor ; but in Persia it is replaced 
by £&. perstcus, a much paler bird, with broader white margins to the 
greater wing-coverts. Continental specimens of the Blue Titmouse 
are brighter than those of our islands, and attain the maximum of 
brilliancy in the south of Spain; while on the other side of the 
Mediterranean, in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, we find P. ultra- 
marinus, and in the Canaries the insular form P. ¢eneriffz: birds 
