Zoology, Q5S 



the livelong night ; and until one is used to it, nothing can well 

 be more wearisome. Towards the end of April, last year, one 

 of these owls established itself in the large Jardin Anglais^ 

 behind the house where we resided at Florence; and, until our 

 departure for Switzerland in the beginning of June, I recol- 

 lect but one or two instances in which it was not constantly to 

 be heard, as if in spite to the nightingales which abounded 

 there, from nightfall to midnight (and probably much later), 

 whenever I chanced to be in the back part of the house, or 

 took our friends to listen to it, and always with precisely the 

 same unwearied cry, and the intervals between each as regular 

 as the ticking of a pendulum. This species of owl, accord- 

 ing to Professor Savi's excellent Ornitologia Toscana (vol. i. 

 p. T^.), is the only Italian species which migrates; passing 

 the winter in Africa and Southern Asia, and the summer in 

 the south of Europe. It feeds wholly upon beetles, grasshop- 

 pers, and other insects. — W. Spence. Pisa^ March 4. 1831. 



Habits of the Blue Titmouse or Tomtit {Panes cceruleus L.). — 

 Sir, (Scolopax rustlcola acquaints us (p. 289.) with the fact of 

 the blue titmouse's having, for two successive years, built its 

 nest, and reared its young, within the jaws of a gibbeted 

 human skeleton. Some years since, I knew a place which, 

 for many years, had been almost annually chosen as the habit- 

 ation of a pair of tomtits (Parus caer ulcus L.) : whether the 

 same couple had occupied it all the time, the reader must 

 guess. It was a hole in a wall that communicated with a 

 dark chamber ; and into it I could peep, without being observed 

 by the little architects. These favourable circumstances not 

 being of every day, nor every year, nor every village, nor 

 every county, occurrence, I resolved to watch the birds, if 

 the place should again be chosen as a habitation. As a first 

 step, I placed a small square box in the hole, with a view 

 not only to accommodate myself, but the birds also ; for the 

 hole came through the wall ; and against it, but not quite 

 close, was placed a shutter ; and, before I gave them the box, 

 many and many a bit of moss did Tom and Peg bring for 

 their nest, which fell down, one after another, between the 

 shutter and the wall. Indeed, I have seen more than a hat- 

 crownful of moss disposed of in this way, before the bird had 

 been able to commence the formation of the nest. Well, a 

 pair of birds soon took possession of the box, and great 

 delight that my scheme was likely to answer took possession 

 of me ; and many, and short between, were the visits that I 

 paid to my proteges. Very soon the nest was almost finished ; 

 and I watched impatiently for the first egg. Day after day I 

 inspected the box, but no egg did I find. I began to think 



