82 PASSERKS. 



Examples from Yezzo may be on an average slightly more sandy 

 than those from Southern Japan ■ and examples from St. Petersburg 

 may be on an average slightly greyer than those from Southern 

 Sweden. Examples from the Kurile Islands may be referred to 

 Parus palustris japonicus or to Parus palustris baikalensis, according 

 to the caprice of the collector, or according to the individual varia- 

 tion of the skins. 



Examples from North China are indistinguishable from those 

 obtained in Greece. They are browner than examples from Japan 

 and Scandinavia, but they are more sandy and not quite so brown 

 as those from the Pyrenees. British examples are on an average a 

 shade browner still, but some examples from Denmark are quite as 

 brown. 



51. PARUS ATER. 



(COLE TIT.) 



Pariu ater, Linneus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 341 (1766). 



In the Cole Tits the black on the crown extends to the bill, but 

 there is a white patch on the nape ; and the black on the throat 

 extends downwards to the breast and sideways to the shoulders. 



Figures : Dresser, Birds of Europe, iii. pi. 107. fig. 3. 



The Cole Tit is a resident on all the Japanese Islands (Blakiston 

 and Pryer, Trans. As. Soc. Japan, 1883, p. 149). There are three 

 examples in the Swinhoe collection from Hakodadi (Swinhoe, Ibis, 

 1874, p. 155), and there are nine examples in the Pryer collection 

 from Yokohama. It is exceedingly abundant in winter in Central 

 Hondo (Jouy, Proc. United States Nat. Mus. 1883, p. 285), and 

 Mr. Pryer has recorded it from the central group of the Loo-Choo 

 Islands (Seebohm, Ibis, 1887, p. 176). 



The breeding-range of the Cole Tit extends from the British Islands 

 across Europe and Siberia to Japan. The typical form appears to 

 range from the British Channel across Europe, and across Asia from 

 the Arctic Circle to the southern slopes of the Himalayas, and 

 through North China to Japan. It varies in three directions : in the 

 blueness of the grey of the upper parts ; in the pureness of the 

 white on the breast ; and in the elongation of the feathers of the 

 crown into a crest. 



