BIRDS. 



2C1 



Having thus spoken of this excessively local species, which we 

 believe to be peculiar to our present area as a breeding species, we 

 may perhaps be pardoned for adding the following remarks as to 

 its supposed distribution in other parts of Scotland, if only to direct 

 more careful attention to these statements for future approval or 

 disapproval. 



By Mr. A. G. More's paper upon ' The Distribution of Birds 

 in Great Britain during the Nesting Season' (v. Ibis, 1865), we 

 find that the author of this most useful paper — though now some- 

 what out of date — ascertained from Sir William Jardine that 

 ' the Crested Titmouse annually breeds in some plantations near 

 Glasgow.' 



We cannot agree to this. * Plantations near Glasgow ' is a 

 definite description as regards growth and age of wood, but not 

 definite enough as regards locality. We possess no other state- 

 ment of the Crested Tit hreedinrj anywhere amongst ' plantations ' 

 or elsewhere south of Strathspey, except one, which we think we 

 have already disproved (vide Vertebrate Fauna of Argyll, p. 64). 

 Nor do we credit the account, given long ago, of Crested Tits seen 

 in the Pass of Killiecrankie in Perthshire (or Province xxix. of 

 Mr. A. G. More's paper), on the authority of Mr. Bigge when in 

 correspondence with (we presume) M'Gillivray in 1837. That it 

 strayed occasionally south of its breeding limits may even be 

 doubted, but the fact remains, as the author of the first volume of 

 the fourth edition of Yarrell's British Birds says, in regard to 

 reported occurrences in England, ' Many of these cases, on inquiry, 

 cannot be substantiated ' (loc. cit. p. 52) ; and the same remark may 

 be held to apply to many of the records which are given north of 

 Tweed. 



Family TROGLODYTIDJE. 

 Troglodytes parvulus, Koch. Wren. 



Local Names. — Wrannie, Vran, Jeannie (in Keith), Thumb W^ren 

 (Gregor). 



Ilesident and abundant everywhere about cultivation, and even up to 

 the very heads of the burns. Though the Wren is not generally 

 sociable, St. John mentions having seen eleven together. 



