662 Zoologi/. 



known she was there, 1 should have thought it was a snake 

 rather than a bird. However, as she would not come out, 

 and the hole was so small that I could not get my hand in, I 

 was obliged to raise the siege until next morning, when I 

 returned, armed with a hammer and chisel, with which to 

 storm her citadel. As the wood was sound, the hole small, 

 and the nest 6 in. or 8 in. within the tree, I was five or ten 

 minutes before I could get to it ; during which time I gave 

 her repeated opportunities of escaping, if she chose ; but she 

 still sat on her nest, puffing and pecking at a stick that I 

 thrust in, in order to drive her off. She at last crept upon the 

 farther edge of the nest, which I then took out, as I wanted 

 it for one of my friends, who is a collector of eggs ; but, on 

 attempting to blow one, I found they were too far advanced : 

 and 1 then felt desirous of seeing whether the old bird would 

 hatch them, after having her nest torn from under her ; and I 

 turned back to the tree where I had got them, and found her 

 still sittinfT in the hole from which her nest had been taken. 



o 



I regret to add, that the humane part of my experiment did 

 not succeed, as she left the nest immediately after, and did not 

 return to it again. 



Another instance which I witnessed was in a nest contain- 

 ing young. This was also at the root of a tree. But the situ- 

 ation did not appear to be so well chosen as is usually the case 

 with the titmouse tribe; for, in this instance, the hole went 

 quite through the tree, and, on one side, was large enough to 

 admit the hand. As the young ones were exposed to the wea- 

 ther, and were also liable to be seen by any one going along 

 the adjoining footpath, I attempted to remedy this defect by 

 covering the larger hole with a sod, which, to a casual ob- 

 server, would appear to have grown there. On taking the 

 sod off one day, to see how the nestlings were going on, I 

 perceived that a clod of earth had fallen from the sod upon 

 them ; and I took a stick and hooked it out, fearing it might 

 smother them. AVhilst I was doing this, I perceived the old 

 one sat on the farther side of the nest, so still and quiet, that, 

 until I perceived her eye, I fancied she was dead ; and she 

 also endured several pokings with the stick before she would 

 move, although the hole on the opposite side of the tree 

 enabled her to escape whenever she thought proper. 



Perhaps Mr. Rennie, in his next edition of Montagu's 

 Dictionary^ will give us a new name for this bird, as the 

 one it has at present is no more applicable to this species 

 than it is to the Parus major or to Parus casruleus, and not half 

 so much so as it would be to the Parus biarmicus ; and he has 

 changed good names into bad ones with far less reason : wit- 



