Parus

Eck, Siegfried, 2006, The Palaearctic Titmouse Species (Aves: Paridae: Parus sensu lato) — A current survey *, Zootaxa 1325, pp. 7-54 : 23-24

3. Parus [c.] cyanus

So far no details are known about the structure of the mixing region between flavipectus (P 12) and tianschanicus (P 11); berezowskii (P 13) is completely isolated.

White­breasted Azure Tits: P. cyanus cyanus PALLAS, 1770 [Volga]; P. cyanus hyperriphaeus (DEMENTIEW & HEPTNER, 1932) [Kustanai, Turgai/Kirgisan steppe]; P. cyanus yenisseensis BUTURLIN, 1911 [Krasnoyarsk]; P. cyanus tianschanicus (MENZBIER, 1884) [loc. typ. restr. Tian Shan, syn. apeliotes MEISE, 1934, Chen near Harbin]; P. cyanus koktalensis (PORTENKO, 1954) [Koktal, Ili basin].

Yellow­breasted Azure Tits: P. cyanus carruthersi HARTERT, 1917 [Samarkand]; P. cyanus flavipectus SEWERTZOW, 1873 [according to Vaurie Fergana]; P. cyanus berezowskii (PLESKE, 1893) [upper reaches of the Hoang­ho].

The population groups: P 11 cyanus , hyperriphaeus, yenisseensis, tianschanicus, koktalensis; central Palaearctic from E Europe to E Asia. — Fig. Quinn: Plate 30: 93, in part.

* Cap and back coloration differ between white and grey or grey and blue­grey shades, and there are also differences in bill thickness (considerable in the case of koktalensis) and the extent of white on the tail feathers (see Meise 1934: 31).

P 12 flavipectus , carruthersi; Tian Shan to Pamir. — Fig. Quinn: Plate 30: 94a–d. * Differences in the extent of white on the tail feathers and in wing length. — The western carruthersi is short­winged (the measurements given by Hartert 1917, original description, and 1921: 2114 are distorted); according to Stepanjan (1990: 576) its wing length is 62–65 mm (measured how?), in flavipectus maximally 70 mm; the white­breasted subspecies (P11) are even larger (see Meise 1934: 31).

The yellow­breasted Azure Tits of the ssp. flavipectus have an average WTI of 17 % ± 1.2 % (n=52), 20 cyanus s.str. (P 11) have 18.8 % ± 1.77%; in relative tail length they are essentially the same (TWI: 91.2 % ± 2.45%, n=50, and 91.6 % ± 2.49%, n=20, respectively).

P 13 berezowskii; NE Qinghai (N China). — Fig. in Pleske (1894, Plate VII, Figs. 3 and

4).

* Yellow­breasted like P 12, crown light green, eye­stripe lacking behind the eyes, neck band interrupted, belly without median spot. — In berezeowskii the wing length according to a few skins reaches 67 mm. — WTI of n=7 averages 17.1 % ± 0.83%; berezowskii is relatively short­tailed. The mean of 8 specimens is 86 % ± 1.13%. Vaurie (1957: 4) was surprised to see the dimensions given by Pleske, who measured the tail differently so as to obtain 92.5 %.