212 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



entire surface in small dots. A beautiful clutch of eggs from 

 Pomerania, in my collection, nine in number, has the ground- 

 colour delicate creamy-white; many of the markings are confluent, 

 and all are very pale and chiefly distributed in broad wavy streaks. 

 One egg in this clutch has the colour distributed in the minutest 

 of specks over the whole surface. The eggs vary from 0'7 to 0'58 

 inch in length, and from 0'5 to 0'45 inch in breadth. 



THE MAESH TIT. 

 (Parus palustris.)* 



Plate 53, Fig. 17. 



British examples (Parus dresseri) are of a somewhat more 

 sandy-brown than those from the continent of Western Europe, 

 but scarcely sufficiently so to warrant their separation. The 

 variety of the Marsh Tit which is generally accepted as the typical 

 form of P. palustris is found throughout South-western Europe 

 as far north and as far east as St. Petersburg. 



I have always found the nest of the Marsh Tit in a hole in a 

 tree, generally near the ground, and almost always in such a 

 narrow hole that it was necessary to use a wire to draw out the 

 eggs with part of the nest. Many other situations, however, are 

 on record. The inside of the hole, if too deep, is filled up with 

 bits of wood or small twigs, and upon this foundation a moderately 

 neat nest is composed of moss, wool, hair and any other soft 

 material that may be within reach. 



Fresh eggs may be found in May. The number varies from 

 five to eight, and some writers say even twelve ; but no such 

 case has ever come under my notice. They are white, with a 

 scarcely perceptible yellowish tinge in ground-colour, spotted and 

 speckled with light-red. They vary from 0"67 to 0'6 inch in 

 length, and from 0"52 to 0'47 inch in breadth. It is impossible 

 to distinguish the eggs of the Marsh Tit from those of its allies. 

 They are, of course, slightly smaller than those of the Great Tit ; 

 but the only safe guide to the correct authentication of the eggs 

 of this bird, and indeed of those of all the Tits, is by observing 

 the parent birds. 



* Parus drcsscvi — Sharpe, Handb., I., p. 139. 



