Birds of Leicestershire 113 



beautiful nest of all our birds not even excepting the 

 chaffinch. There is only one other on the British list,* 

 the crested tit, which is practically found only in the pine 

 woods of the Highlands, and I ought to mention another 

 which has been looked upon lately by modern ornitho- 

 logists as a distinct species, viz., the willow tit. He was 

 not treated as such at the date of Mr. Browne's book, 

 and he differs but little from the marsh tit, a little mouse- 

 brown bird with a glossy black head. In the willow 

 tit these black feathers are edged with a lighter colour, 

 giving a laced appearance. I can't say if it occurs here, 

 and it would probably be necessary to kill a number of 

 birds to establish the fact. I have no doubt it has the 

 same notes, lays the same kinds of eggs, and probably 

 inter-breeds with the marsh tit. Is it more than a 

 variety ? 



' ' The ' ' SittidcB ' family includes only the nuthatch 

 so far as this country is concerned. Mr. Browne says 

 ' sparingly distributed in wooded district.' With us it 

 is very sparingly distributed, and I have only a few 

 records. The lack of old timber which I mentioned 

 before no doubt accounting for this. It is a very pretty 

 and interesting little bird, capable of walking down a 

 tree trunk head first. It breeds in holes and hollows in 

 trees, and when these last are too large it partially fills 

 up the aperture with clay. It has occurred in the Castle 

 Hill garden. The next family, the ' Troglodytidce ' is a 

 formidable name for the only representative, the wren. 

 The next family, the ' Motacellidce,' includes those most 

 graceful birds, the wagtails, as well as the pipits. Mr. 

 Browne has four species of wagtails, and so have we. The 

 white (which is scarce), the pied or water wagtail, the 

 grey and the yellow. Though there is no record of the 

 rare blue headed occurring in the county, is is by no 

 means so unlikely as not to be worth looking for in spring 

 and summer. It is really the Continental form of the 

 yellow, and a lovely bird. There are only two pipits, 

 the tree pipit and the meadow pipit, but here again there 



♦This is now recognised as a distinct species as is also the Irish Cole 

 Tit discovered by Mr. Ingram. S.H.P. 



