BIRDS. 



87 



eastern districts, at all seasons. Many localities could be named, but 

 that is quite unnecessary, as its distribution may be considered as 

 universal, as well as the commonest in both west and east. 



This little bird is very hardy and very prolific, as many as ten 

 eggs or even more ha\'ing been found in a nest. In some parts, 

 nests in cracks in dry peat-banks, as I have myself found it doing ; 

 in others, in sloping braes in old pine woods, in holes under the loose 

 fallen foliage, or under a stone ; again, in holes in old walls or more 

 solid masonry, and many other situations. 



Parus palustris, L. Marsh-Tit. 



I do not here separate the two Tits found north and south of the 

 Grampian Mountains, though I believe that the northern form is 

 deserving of earlier synonymy than the form found south of that 

 range. Some of my reasons may be inferred after a perusal of the 

 following notes on this form.^ 



Of restrided dispersal at the present time within our area. 

 Regarding its general dispersal in Scotland I desire to say a few 

 words here. 



I have long been acquainted with its history and dispersal in 

 the south of Scotland, and in localities south of the Firths of Forth 

 and Clyde. I knew it as long ago as about 1860 or 1861 in 

 the neighbourhood of Craiglockhart Wood, Midlothian, and I pro- 

 cured my first specimen in a little triangular spinny of hard-woods 

 which lay — and may still be in existence — close to the Union Canal, 

 and between it and the public road which runs along near the 

 northern base of Craiglockhart Hill. Since then I have long known 

 of its presence in both summer and winter in the central districts of 

 Scotland, between the Firths of Forth and Clyde. I have also been 

 acquainted with what I believe to be an extremely slow progression 

 and extension of its range in other directions — say after passing 

 Stirling. I knew of its nesting about ten miles west of Stirling in a 

 narrow glen, well wooded with hard-woods, on the south side of the 

 Vale of Menteith. This was in 1879. About the same time I told 

 Mr. Evans of its nesting here on my own ground, and put him on 

 the way of taking the eggs, as I was myself leaving home, and was 



1 Since the above text was written some further light has been thrown upon this 

 peculiar dispersal, which I consider clearly illuminates the contention ^vh^ch I advance, 

 that the Moray Marsh-Tits — if not all of our Scottish Marsh-Tits — are decidedlj- 

 remnants of a northern Continental fauna (see infra, p. 90, footnote). 



