THE GREY LAG GOOSE 215 



killed adults, though it may be noticed some hours after 

 death. But, as I have previously remarked in this paper, a 

 pale fleshy tinge is sometimes visible on the nail of the 

 immature bird. 



Nests of Cole-tit and Tree-creeper. Those who take the 

 late Mr Howard Saunders' Manual as an authority on our British 

 birds will find very little to carp at. His statements are almost 

 invariably accurate. Living in a fir-wooded district, where such 

 birds as Gold-crests, Tits, and Tree-creepers are abundant, I have 

 made notes of their feeding and nesting habits for twenty years, 

 only to find an almost complete agreement with the Manual. 

 Two points, however, may be noticed with reference to the Cole- 

 tit and the Tree-creeper. I reckon the former the most common 

 of all our forest birds. It is more widely diffused than the Wood- 

 pigeon, and much commoner in this locality than the Blue-tit 

 or the Great-tit, both fairly numerous. Of the many nests of 

 this species observed, by far the greater number, 75 per cent. 

 I should say, were found in the deserted runs of field-mice or 

 voles. Dry-stone walls or the earthen fences of the wood are 

 often made use of, but the burrow of a mouse, particularly on 

 the edge of a dry ditch, is far more usual. Mr Saunders says this 

 site is not unusual. I should say that with us it is certainly the 

 most usual position. While discussing this interesting Tit, it may 

 be worth adding that an unrecorded item of food is oats, the top 

 pickles of which the little bird carries from the stook into a tree 

 for the purpose of getting a branch upon which to hammer away 

 at the kernel. The Tree-creeper (Certhia familiaris), though not 

 as common as Parus ater, is well distributed through our woods. 

 Every spring we find nests. Yesterday one was found near the 

 root of a larch tree and under shelter of a collection of fir leaves 

 such as often gathers in situations where small branches persist 

 near the foot of a tree. The mass of wind-blown pine-needles 

 formed a complete canopy over the nest, which rested on a twig 

 in the dark recess. It was a fully rounded structure, built mainly 

 of chips of rotten fir-wood with some moss and wool, and in 

 the inside finer chips and more wool. We have taken many nests 

 in holes and crevices, especially where tree trunks or branches 

 were broken quite off, but this is the first occasion on which a 

 complete cup-shaped structure built from the bottom, totus teres 

 atque rotundus, has been noted. There were six young in it 

 on 1 8th May. Alex. Macdonald, Durris. 



