GREAT TITMOUSE. 481 



a tree or of a wall, but many other sites — some of tlicm 

 more or less odd, such as the inside of a pump or an in- 

 verted flowerpot — are frequently chosen, and occasionally 

 the bird is said to avail itself of the deserted nest of some 

 larger species, which it adapts to its own purposes. Some- 

 times it would seem to excavate a hole for itself in a rotten 

 stump or dead tree, and its eggs have been found lying on 

 the bare wood without any bedding. They are from six to 

 nine in number, very variable in size, since they measure 

 from '75 to '6 by from '67 to '47 in,, and are pure white 

 or white tinged with yellow, blotched, spotted or speckled 

 with light red, the markings, as in the eggs of nearly all the 

 species of the genus, being pretty evenly, but seldom thickly, 

 distributed over the whole surface. 



The bird is common throughout most parts of Great 

 Britain, breeding in every county as far as Sutherland, but, 

 according to Mr. Gray, is much less numerous to the north 

 of Argyleshire. It is never seen in the Outer Hebrides, but 

 it occurs, though rarely, in Shetland. In Ireland it is 

 common and resident. It is found over almost the whole of 

 Europe, going even beyond the Arctic Circle, though scarce 

 so far to the northward. Thence it would seem to extend 

 across Siberia, becoming less common towards the east. 

 Dr. von Middendorff obtained specimens (which differed but . 

 slightly from European examples) in midwinter on the shores 

 of the Sea of Ochotsk. It was formerly thought to inhabit 

 Japan, but the distinctness of the species of that country 

 {Varus minor) is now generally allowed. The southern 

 limits of our bird in Asia are not known ; Mr. Blanford, 

 however, informs the Editor that it is very common in 

 gardens at Shiraz, Abbott sent specimens from Trebizond, 

 and Canon Tristram found it abundant in Palestine. Strick- 

 land obtained it at Smyrna, and Col. Drummond-Hay says it is 

 common in Crete. It seems to occur in most of the islands 

 of the Mediterranean, and is common in Algeria, where it 

 breeds. It also inhabits the Canaries, but is rare there."^ 



* Bisliop Stanley (Fam. Hist, of Birds, i. p. 95) quotes from Forster's ' North 

 America' an instance of this species having been observed iu the Atlantic (lat, 

 VOL. I. 3 Q 



