PAEUS TENERIFFE. 



(CANARIAN BLUE TITMOUSE.) 



Paras cceruleus, var. teneriffce, Lesson, Traite d'Orn. i. p. 456 (1831). 



Parus violaceus, Bolle, J. f. Orn. 1854, p. 455. 



Parus teneriffce, Less., Hartlaub, J. f. O. 1855, p. 424. 



Parus cceruleus (nee Linn.), Bolle, J. f. O. 1857, p. 284. 



Parus teneriffce, Sharpe & Dresser, B. of Eur. iii. p. 139 (1871, partim). 



Figura nulla. 



Ad. P. ultramarino similis, sed major : remigibus secimdariis et tectricibus alarum nee albo apicatis. 



Adult Male (Teneriffe, November 10th). Resembles Parus ultramarinus, but larger, rather brighter in toue 

 of colour, aud lacking the white borders to the secondaries and wing-coverts, the wing being plain blue. 

 Total length about 4*7 inches, culmen 045, wing 2'5, tail 2T5, tarsus 08. 



The female does not differ from the male in plumage ; but the young bird in first plumage has, according to 

 Mr. Meade- Waldo (Ibis, 1889, p. 511), "'buff tips to its wing-coverts and no white on the head, the 

 cheeks and forehead being yellow, the black on the throat and neck being scarcely discernible ; the 

 back, instead of being blue, is green as in P. cceruleus." 



When, in 1871, Dr. Sharpe and myself wrote the articles on the Blue Titmice for the ' Birds 

 of Europe,' we held that there was only one species which inhabited the Canary Islands and 

 North-west Africa, and we stated that Dr. Bolle was doubtless in error in his surmise that two 

 distinct species occur in the Canaries ; but later research has proved that we were in error, and 

 that not only two, but four distinct species of Blue Titmice are to be met with in those islands, 

 and that the present species is specifically distinct from the Ultramarine Titmouse of North-west 

 Africa, which should therefore bear the name of Parus ultramarinus and not P. teneriffce. 



The present species is confined to the Canary Islands, inhabiting Gran Canaria, Teneriffe, 

 and Gomera. Mr. Meade- Waldo sent many specimens from Teneriffe ; and Canon Tristram, 

 who met with it on Gran Canaria, writes (Ibis, 1889, p. 29) as follows: — "I was surprised to 

 see, at the very summit of the pass, a pair of Tits (P. teneriffce) flitting, almost Creeper-like, 

 among the bushes on the face of the cliff. I secured one of them, the other falling into an 

 inaccessible cranny above our heads. We were here 4300 feet above the sea. This was the 

 highest point where I noticed the Titmouse, but it occurs in small numbers at all the lower 

 elevations clown to the coast-line. I had already obtained it among the chestnut-trees near 

 San Mateo ; but it is not nearly so numerous in Canaria as in the other islands, in both of which 

 I procured specimens." Dr. Bolle met with it in the islands of Teneriffe and Canaria, where, 

 he says, it is found wherever there is tree-growth or even high bush-growth, but most commonly 

 in the fruit-gardens. He met with it in the Huerta Grande at Chasna, in the Alameda of 



