4 
SOMRRE TIT. 
either due consideration, or comparison of specimens. 
P. lugubris is altogether a larger bird, tlie beak and 
tarsi are stronger and larger; and while the abdomen 
is Avhite and the back grey brown in lugubris, the 
former is russet, and the latter mottled with russet 
and black in Sibiricus. A reference to the two figures 
will render this quite clear. 
Temminck says it is easy to confound the Sombre 
Tit with the Nonette or Marsh Tit; but it is quite 
certain that he referred to the Parus atricapillus of 
Gmelin, which is a North American bird, altogether 
differing from our well-known Marsh Tit, with which 
the present species can in no way be confounded. 
Count Miihle, who has recorded the occurrence and 
detailed the habits of this bird in Greece, says that 
its habits are different from the other members of the 
family. It arrives in the IMorea, where it appears to 
be a summer visitor, at the end of April or beginning 
of May, and locates itself in the little mountain valleys, 
where it lives solitarily, frequenting the wild-fruit trees, 
and never being found upon the more lofty ones. 
Each bird takes up its own territory, and is observed 
on the same resting-place frequently during the day. 
'i-'hey are very unsociable and shy on the appearance of 
man, and seem to know if they are followed, and 
consequently are difficult to shoot. Count Miihle did 
not observe them after September, and was altogether 
unacquainted with their nidification, the only egg he 
procured being an imperfect and uncoloured one which 
was found in a female shot in the spring. 
The adult male in breeding plumage has the top 
of the head and throat dark blackish brown, the 
rest of the upper plumage bright hair brown; cheeks, 
chest, abdomen, and under tail coverts white, with the 
