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Black Redstart (Phoenicura tithys.) An adult male of tliis 
species was observed by Mr. Howard Saunders, on the 15th of 
IMay, in a held by the side of the Cromer road, near the Erpingham 
tollbar. This species is decidedly rare in Norfolk ; an adult male, 
in my own collection, killed at Hoveton, in March, 1870, and 
some three or four females, procured at Yarmouth in 1848 and 
1849, being, I believe all that have hitherto been identihed in this 
county, ihe appearance of the two males in spring, and the females 
in October and November, is somewhat remarkable. 
Occurrence of the Continental Coal Titmouse in Norfolk. 
Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser, in their new and exhaustive work on 
The Birds of Europe, have recently pointed out the specihc dis- 
tinctions existing between the European coal titmouse, the true 
P arris ater of Linnaeus, and the coal tit of the British islands, for 
which they now propose the scientific appellation of Par us britan- 
nicus. That the continental form occurs occasionally in this 
country was ascertained by the authors, through the examination 
of two Norfolk killed specimens, in the collection of Mr. J. H. 
Gurney, jun., one procured at Northrepps in January, 186G, and 
the other at Lakenham, near Norwich, in the spring of the same 
year. That the continental coal tit, as noAv distinguished from our 
own familiar species, will be found, by careful observation, to be a 
winter visitant to other counties in England as well as to our 
eastern coast, is not less certain, I think, than that further research 
will prove it to be an annual migrant from the Scandinavian 
forests ; but it has yet to be ascertained wliether the British coal 
tit, at present met with only in this country, ever migrates to the 
Continent during the winter season. The true Parus ater is 
generally distributed throughout Europe, but is more abundant in 
the nortliern parts, and like most allied continental forms, diflers, 
chiefly, from our insular species, in the more vivid tints of its 
plumage ; it is also slightly larger in some of its measurements. 
The chief distinctions in plumage, as given by Messrs. Sharpe and 
Dresser, seem to be that, in Parus ater the back is “ a clear slaty 
blue,” in Parus britannicus “‘greyish, Avith a strong wash of 
yellowish olive,” and in the former, the bulf colour of the llaidvs 
has a richer vinous tint. This discovery adds a new species to the 
Norfolk list. 
