PARUS PLESKII. 



(PLESKE'S BLUE TITMOUSE.) 



Parus (Cyanistes) pleskii, Cab. Journ. fiir Orn. 1877, p. 213. 

 Cyanistes pleskii, id. op. cit. 1878, p. 109. 



Parus pleskii, Cab., Gadow, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. viii. p. 12 (1883). 

 Parus pleskei, Cab., De Selys, Bull. Soc. Zool. Fr. 1884, p. 69. 

 Cyanistes pleskei, Cab., Menzbier, torn, cit. p. 259. 



Figurce notabiles. 

 Cabanis, Journ. fiir Orn. 1877, pi. iii.; Menzbier, Orn. geogr. Eur. Rossii, pi. i. 



Ad. capite et collo sicut in P. cmruleo coloratis : dorso et uropygio griseo-cseruleis : alis azureis, secuudariis et 

 tectricibus alarum albiclo apicatis : cauda azurea, rectricibus extimis in pogonio externo albis, reliquis 

 albo apicatis : corpore subtus albo, pectore et hypochondriis sulphureo tinctis : pectore centraliter vitta 

 nigro-caeruleo notato : rostro corneo ad basin pallidiore : pedibus plumbeis : iride fusca. 



Adult Male (St. Petersburg, September 25th). Crown azure-blue ; forehead, cheeks, and a border 

 surrounding the blue on the crown white ; lores dark blue and a narrow dark blue line passing through 

 the eye to the sides of the nape, where it joins a broad blue collar which encircles the neck and throat 

 and joins a blue patch which extends over the upper throat and chin ; back and rump dull greyish 

 blue ; wings bright azure-blue, the secondaries and wing-coverts broadly tipped with white ; tail blue, 

 the outer web of the external rectrices white, the rest of the tail-feathers very slightly tipped with 

 white ; underparts white, the breast and flanks faintly tinged with primrose, on the centre of the breast 

 a dark blue line : beak horn-blue, paler at the base ; legs plumbeous ; iris dark brown. Total length 

 about 4'5 inches, culmen 0'4, wing 2 - 6, tail 2"4, tarsus 0"68. 



The female does not differ from the male, and the young bird differs from the adult in being rather duller 

 in tone of colour, and in having the underparts dull white, tinged ou the breast and flanks with pale 

 buffy yellow. 



The home of the present species appears to be Northern Russia, west of the Ural range, chiefly 

 in the St. Petersburg and Moscow districts, but it is stated to have been met with as far west as 

 Belgium, as, according to Baron de Selys-Longchamps (Consid. sur le Genre Mesange, p. 39), one 

 was caught by a son of M. Oscar Lamarche, President of the Royal Horticultural Society of 

 Liege, in his garden at Liege in December 1878. Dr. Menzbier says (Les Mesanges bleues, 

 p. 23) that this Titmouse occurs near St. Petersburg in the spring and autumn, and is found 

 throughout the year near Moscow, where it is somewhat rare, except during the two seasons of 

 passage, when it is more numerous. It is probable, he adds, that it nests further north in the 

 Dvina districts, but there are no data on this head. Dr. Gadow states (I. c.) that it occurs in 



