PAEUS ATEICEPS. 
(THE GEEY-BACKED TITMOUSE.) 
Pams atriceps, Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 160 (1820), “ ex Java ” ; Sykes, P. Z. S. 1832, 
p. 92 ; Tweeddale, Ibis, 1877, p. 304. 
Parus cmereus, Vieillot, Tabl. Enc. Method, p. 506 (1823), ex Levaillant ; Blyth, Cat. B. 
Mus. A. S. B. p. 103 (1849) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 267 ; 
Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 121 (1852) ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. ii. p. 278 (1863); Holds- 
worth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 460 ; Ball, Str. Eeath. 1874, p. 417 ; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 23. 
Parus nifolensis, Hodgs. Ind. Rev. 1838, p. 31. 
Parus ccesius (Tick.), Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 361 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, ii. p. 405 ; 
Brooks, Str. Eeath. 1875, p. 253; Hume 8c Davison, B. of Tenass., Str. Eeath. 1878, 
p. 376. 
Le Mesange grise ajoue hlanche, Levaillant, Ois. d’Afrique, pi. 139 ; Le Mesange cap negre, 
The Tit, also Coffee-hird,” Planters. Eamgangra, Bengal. ; Glate wingho, Java. 
Adult male and female. Length 5'3 to 5‘.8 inches ; wing 2'6 to 2'9 ; tail 2‘3 to 2‘6 ; tarsus 0'7 to 0'75 ; middle toe and 
claw 0-G to 0'7 ; bill to gape 0-48 to 0'5o. 
Some hill-birds are larger than those from the low country : a male from Horton Plains measures — length 5'8 inches, 
wing 2’9, tail 2‘6 ; a male from Colombo — length 5’5 inches, wing 2-6, tail 2-2. 
Iris dark bi'own ; bill black, a slaty edge to the lower mandible ; legs and feet dusky bluish or plumbeous ; claws brown. 
Head, nape, sides of neck, chin, throat, chest, and down the centre of breast, belly, and under tail-coverts shining blue- 
black, enclosing a large white patch, which extends from the gape over the cheeks and ear-coverts; back, rump, 
and wing-coverts cinereous bluish, with a whitish patch adjacent to the black nape ; wings and tail black, edged 
with bluish, the longer primaries with nari’ow, and the tertials with broad white margins : greater coverts broadly 
tipped white ; outer tail-feather white, with a broad black inner margin, the next with a variable white streak 
running up from the tip ; sides of the breast, belly, under tail-coverts, and the lower portion of the thighs 'wiiitish, 
tinged with bluish grey on the flanks. 
The amount of white on the outer tail-feathers varies; in some examples the outer web of the penultimate is wholly 
white. This may be the result of age. The size of the w’hite nuchal spot varies much, and the black at each side 
of it descends further down the hind neck in some specimens than in others. 
Fbunff. Iris as in the adidt; bill dark horn-colour; margin and gape yellowish. 
The back of the head and chest has less gloss than in the adult; the ventral stripe is narrower ; the back dusky bluish, 
with a greenish tinge. 
Obs. Examples from India are identical with our Ceylon bird, which I cannot likewise separate from the Javan and 
Malayan form, although individual specimens may be perhaps chosen from a series of the latter which would not, 
in all respects, correspoml with some from our island. This is only to be expected, as it is a species subject to 
local variatioji. A West-Javan skin has the w'ing 2‘6 inches, and corresponds entirely on the upper surface with 
one from Ceylon ; another from the same distidct measures 2‘4 only, and is slightly darker on the back ; another 
from East Java measures 2-4, and is paler than most Ceylonese examples. A Lombok specimen has a wing of 
2'6 in length and tail 2‘6 ; it is also a very pale bird, but differs in no other way. Swinhoe remarks, in his 
“ Catalogue of the Birds of China” (P. Z. S. 1871), that the Javan bird can be readilydistinguished from the conthiental 
one by “ the black of the head extending beyond the white nuchal spot, and separating it from the grey of the 
back,” and accordingly he applied a name of Tickell’s (P. ccesms) to the Chinese and Indian bird, which has been 
in vogue in ‘ Sti-ay Eeathers ’ ever since. I do not see this character exemplified in the British-Musoum specimens, 
and 1 have, since my examination of them, asked Mr. Sharpe to look at them. He informs me, in epist., that he 
cannot see the distinction here referred to, although, in some examples, the “ black bordering the white nape-spot 
is carried a little further down the mantle.” I have referred to this above as an individual peculiarity in Ceylonese 
