4 SOMBRE TIT. 



either clue consideration, or comparison of specimens. 

 P. lagubris is altogether a larger bird, the beak and 

 tarsi are stronger and larger; and while the abdomen 

 is white and the back grey brown in lugiibris, 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 Morea, 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. 

 They 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 



