EUROPEAN AND BRITISH COAL TITS. 473 



and apparently to interbreed with the British subspecies, as intermediate 

 forms between them can be obtained. Our bird is distinguished by having 

 the slate-grey of the upper parts suffused with brown, which in the typical 

 form is observable on the rump only, and by having more brown on the 

 flanks. The typical form appears to be found throughout the continent of 

 Europe south of the Arctic circle. Examples from Western and Central 

 Siberia scarcely differ, except that the white parts are somewhat purer, the 

 slate-grey of the upper parts a little brighter, and a tendency to a crest 

 is occasionally developed. In examples from Eastern Siberia, the valley of 

 the Lower Amoor, the Ussuri, Japan, and Kamtschatka the upper parts 

 scarcely present any difference, but the brown on the flanks extends to 

 the breast and belly. In North China this is still more the case, and a 

 decided crest is observable in adult males, so that this form has been 

 described as distinct under the name of P. pekinensis. The brown on the 

 underparts reaches its greatest development in Turkestan; and to this 

 form the name of P rufipectus has been applied. In birds from both 

 these latter localities the upper parts also are suffused with brown, but not 

 to quite such an extent as in examples of the British form. In the 

 Himalayas the Coal Tit (P. ceniodius) is, as might be expected, a still more 

 tropical form : the bufi" on the underparts is slightly more pronounced ; the 

 white on the cheeks is not so pure ; the size is slightly smaller, and the 

 crest more developed. It is not known which form of the Coal Tit inhabits 

 South Russia ; but in the Caucasus a form is found, P. tnichaloivskii, almost 

 exactly like the British form in colour, but a trifle larger ; and further east 

 in South Persia these differences are exaggerated : the upper parts are still 

 browner, inclining to olive ; and the brown on the flanks is as much deve- 

 loped as in the Turkestan birds. This form has received the naujc of 

 P. phaeonotus. It is impossible to look upon any of these forms as specific. 

 We know that most of them are connected together by intermediate 

 examples ; and the series is only broken in districts from which we have 

 been unable to obtain specimens. 



There are numerous tropical forms of the Coal Tit inhabiting the Hima- 

 layas. Several of these may be distinguished by the absence of the wing- 

 bars ; another, more nearly allied to our bird, P. melanolophos, is distin- 

 guished by its dark slate-grey belly and well-developed ci'cst. In Algeria 

 the Coal Tit, P tedoucii, appears to have been so long isolated from its 

 relations as to have become specifically distinct, differing in having the 

 underparts, including the cheeks and the nape, yellow instead of white or 

 bufl'. The Coal Tit does not appear to have any representative in America. 



The Coal Tit, although as interesting in its habits and appearance, is not 

 quite so well known a bird as its congeners the Blue Tit and the Great 

 Tit. It does not so often come into notice ; for it usually confines itself to 

 the woods and the wilder tracts of country, and is not commonly met with 



