78 WHITE-HEADED LONG-TAILED TIT. 



difference in the coloration of the Long-tailed 

 Tit, the Parus caudatus of most works on orni- 

 thology thirty years ago ; in those dealing with 

 the ornithology of different countries of Europe, the 

 species was mostly represented with a perfectly 

 white head. Such a bird I had never seen in 

 England, and on following up my researches, I 

 gradually came to the conclusion, after the 

 examination of many specimens, that our British 

 bird was a distinct species from that of the 

 continent of Europe. This seemed*to be to many 

 a surprising fact, although it ought not to have 

 been so. In studying the ornithology of any 

 other part of the world but Europe, naturalists 

 would have expected to find a modification of the 

 Avifauna in islands as far separated from a 

 continent as the British Islands are, but, because 

 it was a European question, and our Long-tailed 

 Tit had been always considered to be the 

 Parus caudatus of Linnseus, many doubts on 

 the subject were entertained, and are even enter- 

 tained to this day, that the British species can 

 be distinct from the Swedish and Continental 

 bird, even by men who readily admit that our 

 Red Grouse (Lagopus scoticus) is not the 



