PARUS PH^ONOTUS. 



(PERSIAN COAL TITMOUSE.) 



Parus ater (nee Linn.), Menetries, Cat. raisonne, p. 40. no. 92 (1832). 



Parus phceonotus, Blanford, Ibis, 1873, p. 88. 



Parus michailovsJcii, Bogdanoff, Ptitsui Kavkaza, p. 87 (1879). 



JBuraja Gaitschka, KavJcaskaya GaitschJca, Russian. 



Figura unica. 

 Blanford, E. Persia, pi. xvi. fig. 1. 



Ad. pileo, mento et gula, et nuckse lateribus nitente nigris : plaga nuchali alba : dorso et uropygio pallida 

 olivaceo-brunneis, hoc pallidiore : alis et cauda brunneis, plumis in pogonio externo olivaceo-brunneo 

 marginatis : tectricibus alarum majoribus et intermediis ad apicem albo puactatis : capitis et colli 

 lateribus, pectore et abdomine mediis albis : hyponchondriis et crisso fulvo-cervinis. 



Adult Male (Tiflis, December) . Crown, sides of the nape, chin, and throat glossy black ; nuchal space pure 

 white; back and rump pale olivaceous brown, the latter paler; wings and tail hair-brown, the feathers 

 externally margined with olivaceous brown ; median and larger wing-coverts tipped with white spots ; 

 sides of the head below the eye, and of the neck, breast, and centre of the abdomen pure white ; flanks 

 and crissum warm brownish isabelline ; under wing-coverts and axillaries pure white : bill blackish ; 

 legs plumbeous; iris dark brown. Total length about 4'5 inches, culmen - 53, wing 2"7, tail 2 - 05, 

 tarsus 0'75. 



The female does not differ from the male in plumage, but the young bird has the white portions of the 

 plumage tinged with buffy yellow, the flanks are darker, and the upper parts are duller and darker in 

 tone of colour. 



First described by Mr. Blanford from specimens obtained by Sir Oliver St. John in the oak-forests 

 near Shiraz, in Southern Persia, this Titmouse was supposed to be restricted to Persia, but it has 

 more recently been found to inhabit Transcaspia and the Caucasus, and was described from the 

 latter country by Bogdanoff under the name of Parus michailovsJcii, but there is no doubt that 

 this latter is specifically identical with the Persian bird. I have carefully compared two 

 specimens from Tiflis, for which I am indebted to Dr. G. Badde, and a female obtained by 

 Michailovski in the Caucasus, lent to me by Mr. Seebohm, with the type of Parus phceonotus in 

 the British Museum, and can find no difference either in coloration or size. Dr. Padde (Orn. 

 Caucas. p. 139) very justly unites the two forms, but says that Parus michailovskii is, to some 

 extent, a link between Parus phceonotus and P. ater, a view which I cannot endorse. He only 

 met with this Titmouse in the plains and mountains of Central and Eastern Caucasia, and did 

 not procure any examples from the west. On the 29th June, 1864, when in view of the Lapuri 

 glacier, at an altitude of 7000 feet, a continuous rain caused them to halt ; he saw a few of these 



