J. A. HARVIE-BROWN ON MARSH TIT IN SCOTLAND. 
99 
from drawings—certainl)^ not in summer; and in autumn and winter 
and even late summer, they may be certainly too much occupied on 
the moors preparing for the eventful “Twelfth” to have much oppor¬ 
tunity. But the Crested Tit is well known to them all the year round. 
In autumn and winter the Marsh Tit is abundant in Forth, but 
not a conspicuous species, nor necessarily seen every day. On Dec. 
24th, 1891, I found my note—“Marsh Tit common. ‘Tzee, tzee’ all 
around us in a bank of 40 to 50 year old oak.” Col. Duthie writes 
from Doune district of Forth (county of Perth)—“I have been on their 
trail for the last three years without success, but Buchanan Hamilton, 
of Lenny, mentions it in his list from the Callander district.” 
Writing from the parish of Ardclach (Moray), on the Findhorn, 
Mr. R. Thomson cannot recal a single instance of the Marsh Tit 
within his parish, regarding the Natural History of which he must 
be considered our first authority. He feels sure that it could 
not have escaped his observation, and he is perfectly acquainted 
with the other species of Titmice. He certainly never met with its 
nest in all his bird-nesting experiences. We may add, at this oppor¬ 
tunity, that Mr. R. Thomson was initiated and encouraged in his 
Natural History Studies by the Rev. Geo. Gordon, who has always 
considered him a specially careful observer and recorder. His know¬ 
ledge of the district Botanically, Entomologically, and Ornithologi- 
cally is probably unexcelled. 
In a list of birds sent us by Mr. Chas. H. Alston, who resided in 
Upper Badenoch, he mentions Blue and Cole Tits, Great and Long¬ 
tailed Tits, as observed there in mixed migratory (or vagratory) flocks, 
but says nothing of the Marsh Tit, a species also well known to him. 
Now, all the above negative evidence proves, to my view, only 
the general local nature of the Marsh Tit’s distribution. It redounds 
all the more to Mr. W. Evans’ credit that he discovered an “ oasis ” 
—as I still believe it to be—where the Marsh Tit breeds. All we 
still desire to contend for is that the distribution of this interesting 
species is still local in Scotland \ that it is most common and more 
general in Forth and South of Scotland than elsewhere (of Clyde we 
cannot speak); that on Tay it is still extremely rare, if present at all; 
that in Moray it is still local, if not indeed very restricted; that in 
Moray, north of the Caledonian Canal, it is probably entirely absent 
(A.D. 1894). Also, that because it is absent no 7 o, or extremely 
local, it is impossible to say that it will remain so, or that it will not 
within a few years become more general. And we contend that 
it is not absence of observation in the southern districts of the 
Moray Basin or Tay that is sufficient to account for its extremely 
locally recorded dispersal. With innumerable instances of the dis¬ 
persal of many other species, which can hardly be controverted 
