48 Order I 



breed in the Orkneys or Shetlands and abroad is 

 represented by P. ater, with grey in place of olive back. 

 Specimens, however, which many people think indis- 

 tinguishable from the latter, are found breeding in 

 Scotland, and the Irish bird, with a yellow rather than 

 a whitish breast, has been lately separated ; the truth 

 being that it is difficult to draw the line between forms 

 so closely related. The call-note of the Coal Tit is sharp 

 and loud, so that it cannot easily be mistaken for those 

 of its congeners ; the nest resembles that of the Great 

 Tit, but is usually placed in a hole in a wall or stump 

 or in the ground, less commonly in a bank-side or the 

 thatch of a shed. The bird is not so fond of an artificial 

 nesting-box as the Great and Blue Tits are. 



Until the last few years our somewhat browner 

 backed Tits with merely the cheeks white were aU 

 united under the name of Marsh Titmouse, though not 

 necessarily found near marshes. It has been ascer- 

 tained, however, that two forms have been confounded 

 under that title, the Marsh Tit with shiny black head in 

 the adult (P. palustris dresseri) and the Willow Tit 

 (P. borealis Meinschmidti) with dull black head. Even 

 yet perfect unanimity has not been arrived at, and 

 every reader of these pages must form his own opinion ; 

 but it appears that the birds breeding in Scotland and 

 the Border counties of England should be referred to the 

 WiUow Tit, while further south both forms occur, with 

 the Marsh Tit predominant in some or most of the 

 districts, and especially in Kent. The latter seems to 

 prefer woods, the former copses, hedgerows, and gardens. 

 The WiUow Tit cuts a neat round hole and lines the 

 excavation with felted down, hair, and the like; the 

 Marsh Tit does not usually cut its own hole and has a 



