478 BRITISH BIRDS. 



fically distinct, being very much browner both above and below, especially 

 on the flanks, than even examples of P. palustris from the British Islands ; 

 it has also the rounded tail which characterizes the birds of North Europe^ 

 Siberia, and Japan. It may be looked upon as a semitropical form, and is 

 possibly more nearly allied to the Sombre Tit (P. lugubris) of South-eastern 

 Europe, a species somewhat larger in size and having the black on the 

 throat much more clearly defined, like the North-American representatives 

 of the Marsh- Tit, P atricnpillus and P. carolinensis. The range of P. son- 

 garus extends from the Thianshan and Alashan mountains eastwards to 

 Kansu. 



All these forms undoubtedly interbreed wherever their ranges meet, 

 and can only be regarded as varieties of one variable species, which 

 presents a striking example of scarcely distinguishable eastern and western 

 forms connected together by a central semiarctic form, and represented 

 in the south by a semitropical form — a peculiarity of geographical dis- 

 tribution characteristic of many species of migratory Palaearctic birds. 



The Marsh-Tit has scarcely a right to its name. It is never seen on the 

 reeds or in the sedge, which are the special characteristics of a marsh, but 

 in bushes or trees of all kinds, great or small, on the confines of the reeds, 

 on the bushes by the river-side, or in the garden ; even in the suburban 

 gardens on the outskirts of London or Sheffield, it is almost sure to be 

 found. Nevertheless it is less partial to very dry districts than some of 

 the other Tits. For example, in the Parnassus, though Kriiper told me 

 that he had found it down in the plains, I never met with it in either the 

 pine-region or the district where beeches or oaks once flourished, but which 

 is now only a grass region, whereas the Coal Tit, the Great Tit, and the 

 Sombre Tit were all there. Again, in the endless pine-forests which sur- 

 round Arcachon, both in the newer forests, where the ground is little more 

 than bare sand, and in the older forests, where a subsoil of peat has esta- 

 blished itself, though the Great Tit, the Crested Tit, and the Coal Tit are 

 common, and we once saw a Blue Tit, we never met with a Marsh-Tit. 

 The latter species, however, was not rare in the cultivated districts round 

 Pau. 



In its habits the Marsh-Tit scarcely dift'ers from its near allies. Though 

 smaller than most of them, it is as active as any of them, and, like the 

 Goldcrests and the Willow-Warblers, may be seen in almost every con- 

 ceivable position searching for insects on the buds at the end of a branch 

 Sometimes it peers down from above, and sometimes from below. Now it 

 twists to this side, and now to that. Sometimes it hangs by one leo- • and 

 sometimes it may be seen poised in front of the end of the bough with 

 half-spread tail and its little wings buzzing like those of a hawkmoth. On 

 the whole it is a silent bird ; but sometimes, as it passes through the wood 

 you may hear its four loud and rather plaintive notes uttered in rapid 



