SOMBRE TIT. 6 



Agassiz,) our old classifiers were influenced in the 

 formation of orders and genera; the consequence of 

 this is that every few years we have a new nomen- 

 clature, founded on the assumption that the previous 

 one was based upon erroneous data. 



Upon this all-important subject the reader will find 

 some excellent and judicious remarks in a paper by 

 Mr. Stimpson, quoted from Silliman's "Journal/' in the 

 "Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal" for October, 

 1860. I will only here make one extract: — "The res- 

 toration by G. It. Gray, of Boddaert's names in ornithology 

 is another instance. By the discovery of a meagre 

 pamphlet of the eighteenth century, only two or three 

 copies of which now exist, we find ourselves forced 

 to change the generic names of common birds, familiar 

 as they are by long and constant usage." 



I shall have another opportunity, more appropriate 

 than this, of enlarging upon this subject, in which I 

 shall be able to shew that the Prince of Canino has 

 changed the generic name of some birds twice or even 

 three times, without in any case adding either precision 

 or utility to the science. I sincerely hope that British 

 ornithologists at least, will do all in their power to put 

 an end to a system which merely encumbers our 

 literature with useless verbiage. 



The Sombre Tit is an inhabitant of Dalmatia, 

 Hungary, Greece, and Eussia. According to De Selys, 

 it also occurs in Switzerland. Temminck says that it 

 is never found in Austria, or in fact in any part of 

 Germany. 



In the distribution of colours about the head and 

 neck this bird is very similar to Parus Sibiricus, 

 with which it has been indeed considered identical by 

 Keyserling and Blasius, without, however, I think, 



