A HITHERTO OVERLOOKED BRITISH BIRD.
By Ernst Hartert.
In a country so well explored and so well stocked with truth-seeking ornithologists as Great Britain, the addition of a bird "new to the British list" is always an event. Nevertheless several such additions have been made lately, but they were all stragglers from the far east or west; and it is, I believe, a long time ago that a resident breeding species has been added to the list. This, however, has occurred now with the discovery in England of Parus salicarius, Brehm.[1]
It is well known that the Marsh Tits, to which this species belongs, consist of a number of local forms, partly recognized as species, partly as subspecies, by modern ornithologists. Thus over the greatest part of Central Europe we find a common Marsh Tit with a glossy, somewhat bluish-black head, generally called Parus palustris. To it belongs the common English Marsh Tit, which has been called P. dresseri, but which hardly differs in colour from West German and French specimens, but is a little smaller, and has a shorter bill. It is no species, but should be recognized as a subspecies by exact workers. From it the East German bird differs much more, especially in colour; but, strange to say, this fact has only recently been recognized. Different from these subspecifically allied forms are the Northern Marsh Tits, known as P. borealis, and replaced by a very closely allied form in the Alps. These Tits are always admitted to be different from the common Central European Marsh Tits. They differ at a glance by the colour of the crown, which looks less glossy and more of a brownish black. To this group also belongs Parus salicarius. This different colour is produced by a very different structure of these feathers. In the common Marsh Tits these feathers are deep black, rounded, and with strong glossy reflexes on the tips. In the Northern Marsh Tit and our P. salicarius they are brownish black, more
- ↑ Nowadays known as a subspecies of the Willow Tit: Poecile montanus salicarius (Wikisource-Ed.)
