The Coal-Tit. 151 



chur-chilr-chitr, chilr : they lived long enougli to fly, and were becoming quite inter- 

 esting, when suddenly they all died ofif within two days ; having probably 

 swallowed some wadding from their bed, in their greediness after food dropped 

 upon it. 



Family— PA RIDyS. 



The Coal-Tit. 



Parus ater, LiNN. 



DR. SHARPB has separated the British race of this species under the name 

 of P. britminicus on account of the olive-brown tint of its upper back ; but 

 it would appear that the Continental form also occurs in Great Britain, as well as 

 intermediate grades between the grey and brown-backed forms. As a matter of 

 fact these differences, if they were constant, would be trifling as compared with the 

 far more defined local variations of our Yellow-Ammer, the male Kentish bird in 

 breeding plumage differing from that of some parts of Surrey, almost as much as 

 a Saffron-finch does from a Greenfinch. 



On the Continent the Coal-Tit is generally distributed and resident throughout 

 central and southern Europe, extending northward in summer up to lat. 65°. In 

 Great Britain it is generally distributed, though local in Scotland, and not recorded 

 from the Outer Hebrides, Orkneys, or Shetlands. 



The adult male has the head and throat blue-black, with the exception of a 

 white patch on the nape, and a much larger one extending from a little behind 

 the base of the bill below the eye to the neck ; back slaty-grey, more or less 

 suffused with olive-brown ; rump browner ; wings and tail greyish -brown ; median 

 and greater wing-coverts with white tips, forming two bars ; breast white, somewhat 

 sordid and gradually shading into buff- brownish on the belly and flanks ; bill black ; 



