20 



ISLAND LIFE. 



[part I. 



Farus lugiibris, allied to the marsh tit, is confined to South-east 

 Europe and Asia Minor, from Hungary and South Russia to 

 Palestine; and Parus 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 tit- 

 mouse {Parus cristatus) is sometimes 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 distribution of the S;pecies 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 ascer- 

 taining their actual distribution, it has not been found prac- 

 ticable 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 birds they are sure to have been collected, or at least 

 noticed, wherever they occur. There are, so far as yet known, 

 twelve species of true jays, occupying an area extending from 

 Western Europe to Eastern Asia and Japan, and nowhere pass- 

 ing the Arctic circle to the north, or the tropic of Cancer to the 

 south, so that they constitute one of the most typical of the 

 Palsearctic ^ genera. The following are the species, beginning 

 with the most westerly and proceeding towards the east. The 

 numbers prefixed to each species correspond to those on the 

 coloured map which forms the frontispiece to this volume. 



1. Garrulus gland arius. — The common jay, inhabits the 



1 The Pala3arctic region includes temperate Asia and Europe, as will be 

 explained in the next chapter. 



