270 HILL BIRDS OF SCOTLAND 



had sense only to open their large mouths in a blind appeal 

 for food. Now it was that we heard for the first time the 

 alarm note of the Crested Titmouse. The main point that 

 strikes one, I think, is the softness of these calls compared 

 with the cries of the other members of the Tit family. The 

 notes are a low musical twittering, reminding me of a part 

 of the song uttered by a certain canary of my acquaintance ; 

 they lack entirely the harshness of the cries of the Blue 

 or Great Tits. I have mentioned that, in order to see into 

 this nest, a match was lighted and held in the hollow. No 

 more was thought of the incident at the time, but a fort- 

 night later the stalker and I revisited the spot to see what 

 progress the young had made. A charred and blackened 

 stump was all that remained of the former nesting site ! 

 In a way that it is impossible to account for the match had 

 set alight the crumbling wood, and thus a most pathetic 

 and greatly to be regretted tragedy had been enacted 

 in the quiet forest. Of the young there was no trace ; 

 the nest was burnt almost to a cinder, and their small 

 corpses had been effectually cremated. 



On May 28th I revisited the one nest where things had 

 gone well with the owners, and found that the family had 

 just been hatched out. The tree was well placed for 

 photographing the parent birds near the nest, and as 

 they appeared to be quite confiding I focussed a certain 

 branch of the tree where they were in the habit of 

 alighting and waited for events. At the moment when 

 I erected the camera both the parent birds were away 

 searching for food, and when they returned to find the 

 formidable apparatus fixed up in front of their house 

 they were extremely surprised. The cock was much the 

 bolder of the two. He perched fearlessly on the nesting 

 tree, and scolded the camera and the photographer con- 

 tinuously until he became wearied and his voice went. 

 In the meanwhile the hen flitted anxiously around, hold- 



