90 



BIRDS. 



Col. Drummond Hay knew nothing of its occurrence, except to 

 quote the statement of Booth. ^ But when Mr. Macpherson wrote 

 to me in reply to a letter of mine suggesting a certain locality 

 which might be patiently searched for the Marsh-Tit, he said that he 

 believed with me that that place fulfilled the requirements of the 

 habits of the species best. I am still in the hope that this place has 

 been explored by another able observer, and I shall not be greatly 

 surprised if it turns up there in isolated pairs. But, as will be seen 

 later, that other able observer, Mr. J. G. Millais, makes no mention 

 of it on the Murthly estates. 



And now we come to the interesting discovery of the Marsh-Tit 

 by Mr. William Evans in Speyside — i.e., as we all know, to the north 

 of the Grampians, and far down the valley among the hard-woods 

 fringing the great pine woods of Aviemore and Rothiemurchus — as 

 duly recorded by him at the time, and also substantiated afterwards 

 by abundant observation of competent persons. 



Mr. W. Evans, when writing to the Rev. H. A. Macpherson on 

 the 15th September 1898, dating from near Blair Atholl, says : " Yes ; 

 I secured one of the Speyside Marsh-Tits, and sent it to Dr. Sharpe, 

 British Museum, for comparison M'ith British and Continental 

 specimens. He returned it to me as F. dressed. Speyside birds are 

 decidecUy brighter coloured — less dingy — than those got in Forth." 

 (So also are Creepers and Cole-Tits, and especially Sparrows — the latter of ten 

 just like one figured, I think, in Daioson-Rowley's ^^Ornithological Miscellany" 

 as a town versus a country one! The italics are mine. — J. A. H.-B.) 

 But I am quite of the opinion that this colony of Marsh-Tits on Spey- 

 side is of Continental origin, and had never formed any continuous 

 distribution with those first recorded by Macgillivray in Forth on 

 22nd and 28th July 1838, and if a few are still found to exist in 

 certain parts between, I believe these to be a remnant of old Con- 

 tinental dispersal, and not an advance guard of the " duskier host." 



I have now, I think, said most of what at present can be said of 

 this curious dispersal, and I hope I may be forgiven for treating the 

 subject at some length, as possessing rather more of interest than 

 many other species. - 



^ He expressed, regarding the nearly similarly local Crested Tit, the excellent 

 remark that he would sooner expect to find it — i.e. the Crested Tit — in the Black 

 Wood of Rannoch, than to find that species in the Pass of Killiecrankie. 



- On the first page of the treatment of this bird, I referred to some further light 

 thrown upon the peculiar distribution of our Scottish Marsh-Tits. The name Parus 

 palustris dresseri (Sharpe) assigned to them will not now stand. Mr. William Evans, 



