PAErS. 57 



Nearctic regions as well as to the Himalayas, Java, and West Africa, the South- 

 African birds being barely separable as Melcmiparus. No form of the family Paridse is 

 known from South America. 



1, Parus meridionalis. 



Parus meridionalis, Scl. P. Z. S. 1856, p. 293 \ 1857, p. 81 % 1858, p. 299 \ 1859, p. 363' j Baird, 

 Rev. Am. B. i. p. 81'; Sumichxast, Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. i. p. 544'; Salv. Cat. Striekl. 

 Col. p. 63' 



Supra cinereus ; alis et cauda nigricantibus brunnescenti-ciiiereo limbatis ; pileo toto cum nucha, gutture 

 et cervice antica nigris, genis et capitis lateribus albis ; abdomine eiuereo brunnescenti tincto ; pectore et 

 ventre medio albidis ; rostro nigro; pedibus plumbeis. Long, tota 4-8, alae 2"5, caudae 2'3, rostri a 

 rietu 0-5, tarsi 0*75. (Descr. exempl. ex Mexico, Mus. nostr.) 



Hob. Mexico {T. Mann''), El Jacale (SalW^), La Taxada' (Boucard^), Jalapa (de Oca% 

 Moyoapam near Orizaba, 8200 feet (Sumichrast^), Tierra fria (le Strange). 



This southern Tit, which has a general resemblance to the North-American Parus 

 atricapillus, is only found, so far as we yet know, in the higher mountains of Southern 

 Mexico, whence a specimen was sent to Strickland in 1844'', where it was subse- 

 quently rediscovered by M. Salle i, and where several other collectors have met with it. 

 Mr. Sclater, who described M. Salle's specimens ^, afterwards ^ made a close com- 

 parison between it and P. atricapillus, which he was unable to do (for want of spe- 

 cimens) in his first notice of it. He was then able to point out that P. meridionalis 

 is a fairly well-defined species; and this view has been confirmed by subsequent 

 writers, who have left it full specific rank whilst placing several northern forms of 

 P. atricapillus as "varieties" of that bird. The real affinity of P. meridionalis, as 

 indicated by the absence of white edging to the feathers of the wings and tail, and 

 its short tail, seems to be with P. carolinensis, a species which is found in the Southern 

 States, and therefore geographically its nearest neighbour. 



We have no account of the habits of P. meridionalis in Mexico ; but it doubtless 

 resembles in this respect most other Pari. Though only known as an inhabitant of 

 Southern Mexico, we should not be surprised to hear of its being found in the Altos of 

 Guatemala towards the frontier of the State of Chiapas. 



PSALTEIPARUS. 



Psaltriparus, Bonaparte, Compt. Rend. xxxi. p. 478 (1850). (Type P. personatus, Bp., = Parus 

 melanotis, Hartl.) 



This small genus contains three species, of which two are so closely allied as to be 

 deemed geographical varieties of one another by recent writers on North-American 

 birds; the third is well defined and is apparently exclusively found in Mexico and 

 Guatemala, being the sole representative of the Paridse in the latter country. The 



BIOL. CENTK.-AMEK., Zool., Aves, Vol. 1, Feb. 1880. 8 



