CHESTED TIT. 481 



PARUS CRISTATUS. 



CRESTED TIT. 



(Plate 9.) 



Parus ciistatus, Briss. Orn. iii. p. 558 (1760) ; Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 340 (1766) ; et 

 auctorum plurimorum— iaiAam, GmeUn, Bechstein, Naumann, Temminck, 

 Oray, (BoTutpaHe) , Degland, Gerhe, Newton, Dresser, &c. 



Lophoplianes cristatus (Linn,), Kaup, Natilrl. Syst. p, 02 (1829). 



Parus mita-atus, Brehm, Vog. Beutschl. p. 467 (1831). 



The Crested Tit is one of the most local of our indigenous birds. Its 

 only known breeding-grounds in the British Islands are in Scotland^in the 

 valley of the Spey and in the adjoining counties of Ross and Inverness on 

 the west, and Aberdeen on the east. In winter its distribution is a little 

 more extended, and Mr. Gray remarks that it has been obtained as far south 

 as Perthshire. In the western counties of Scotland but two specimens 

 have been obtained — one in 1838 near Barcaldine House in Argyleshire, 

 and another, of which the exact date is not known, taken near Dumbarton. 

 Although, on the authority of Jardine, it has been said to have occurred in 

 Lanarkshire, Mr. Gray has been unable to trace it in any part of that 

 county during the last twenty years. In England, Mr. Harting, in his 

 ' Handbook,'' records eight instances of its occurrence ; !Mr. Simpson re- 

 cords another in the ' Zoologist ' for 1873, p. 3021, and Baron Von Hiigel 

 one more specimen in the same periodical for 1874, p. 4065. Although 

 not included by Thompson, the bird has occurred in Ireland, as shown by 

 Sharpe and Dresser, upon the authority of Mr. Blake Knox, who mentions 

 two specimens. 



The Crested Tit, though its range is very restricted, is much commoner 

 and less local on the Continent, being a resident in most of the pine-forests, 

 though it does not appear to range further north than lat. 64°, whence 

 Meves records it. To the east it has only with certainty been found as far 

 as the valleys of the Don audthe Volga above Sarepta. Bogdanow thinks 

 that its occurrence in the Caucasus rests upon insufficient evidence. To 

 the south it is found in many localities as far as the Mediterranean, but its 

 range does not appear to extend to Africa. Kriiper found it in Turkey ; 

 but it has not yet occurred in Italy south of the Alps, Greece, Asia Minor, 

 or Palestine. 



There are several species of Tit which are distinguished by having a 

 crest; but since in the Coal Tits there seems to be a series of intermediate 

 forms between the crested and non-crested varieties, it would be extremely 

 unadvisable to separate them fi'om the genus Parus, otherwise than merely 



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