198 



THE FR\THEREn TKIBES. 



of \\'luch they assemble and keep togethei-. One of these call-notes is soft and searccly 

 audible ; a second is a louder chirp or twitter ; and a third is of a hoarser kind." 



The nests of the Tits are often found in singular places. One pair reared their 

 abode in the upper part of an old pump, fixing it on the pin in which the handle \\-orked. 

 It happened that during the time of building and laying the eggs, the pump had not 

 been in use ; when again set going, the female was sitting, and it was na-turally supposed 

 that the motion of the pump-handle would drive her away. But the yoimg brood were 

 hatched safely, without any other misfortune than the loss of part of the tail of the 

 sitting bird, which was rubbed off by the friction of the pump-handle. Another pair 

 chose a pump-handle for the same purpose, and for several days persevered in inserting, 

 close upon the joint of tlie handle, the materials for a nest, though every time the 

 handle was raised, they were either crushed or forced out, till the patience of the littlo 

 builders was utterly exhausted. 



THE COI,E-TIT.* 



The Cole-tit is a woodland bird. Its favourite localitj' appears to be the fir ])lantations, 

 on places that are rather elevated and dry, and while the trees are so young as to be 

 branched near the ground, or on the outskirts of the natiu-al forests, where the trees are 

 more apart than in the centre, and never so completely lose their natural branches, and 

 where young ones have sjDace and air to spring up. 



This bird has the black on the head extending to the lower part of the neck, but pied 

 with three bright and very conspicuous patches of white ; an oblong one from the gape to 

 the lower part of the neck, on each side, pointed forwaid at the upper extremity and 

 backwards at the lower, and in some positions of the head extending to the white on the 

 shotddcr, and one on the nape wholly within the black at the lower edge. The head of 

 the Cole-tit is rather flattened on the crown. 



■-¥S 





TiiK coi.K-ri r. 



This bird has a song — not indi'cd of many nolcs, or of mellifluous inflexions; if, is 

 little else than the same note repeated four or li\c fimcs, l)ii( it lias so miicli \aiictyof 

 pitch and tune as to form a sort of cadence, "which," it lias been said, "would mako a 



t Poi'us Atcr. 



