20 



ISLAND LIFE 



PART I 



western portion of its area. Our little favourite, the blue 

 tit {Pants cceruleus) ranges over all Europe from the 

 Arctic circle to the Mediterranean, and on to Asia Minor 

 and Persia, but does not seem to pass beyond the Ural 

 mountains. Its lovely eastern ally the azure tit {Parus 

 cyaneus) overlaps the range of P. coeruleus in Western 

 Europe as far as St. Petersburg and Austria, rarely 

 straof^lhiof to Denmark, while it stretches all across Central 

 Asia between the latitudes 35° and 56° N. as far as the 

 Amoor valley. Besides these wide-ranging species there 

 are several others which are more restricted. Parus 

 tcneriffa:, a beautiful dark blue form of our blue tit, inhabits 

 North-west Africa and the Canaries ; Parus leclouci, closely 

 allied to our coal tit, is found only in Algeria ; Panes 

 luguliris, allied to the marsh tit, is confined to South-east 

 Europe and Asia Minor, from Hungary and South Russia 

 to Palestine ; and Parses cindus, another allied form, is 

 confined to the extreme north in Lapland, Finland, and 

 perhaps Northern Russia and Siberia. Another beautiful 

 little bird, the crested titmouse {Parus cristatus) is some- 

 times placed in a separate genus. It inhabits nearly all 

 Central and South Europe, wherever there are pine forests, 

 from 64° N. latitude to Austria and North Italy, and in 

 the west to Spain and Gibraltar, while in the east it does 

 not pass the Urals and the Caucasus range. Its nearest 

 allies are in the high Himalayas. 



These are all the European tits, but there are many 

 others inhabiting Asia, Africa, and North America ; so 

 that the genus Parus has a very wide range, in Asia to 

 Ceylon and the Malay Islands, in Africa to the Cape, and 

 in North America to the highlands of Mexico. 



The Pistrihution of the Species of Jays. — Owing to the 

 very wide range of several of the tits, the uncertainty of 

 the specific distinction of others, and the difficulty in 

 many cases of ascertaining their actual distribution, it has 

 not been found practicable to illustrate this genus by 

 means of a map. For this purpose we have chosen the 

 genus Garrulus or the jays, in which the species are less 

 numerous, the specific areas less extensive, and the species 

 generally better defined ; while being large and handsome 



