CRESTED TITMOUSE. 501 



tailed Titmouse, and the Golden-crested Wren ; but nearly 

 all the birds be observed were cocks, the bens being no 

 doubt on their nests, which for want of time he was not able 

 to discover. The following year nests were sent to him from 

 this place : they are built of moss and wool, felted with a 

 little fur of the mountain-hare. Mr. Hancock informed Mr. 

 Hewitson that some nests he found in 1850, were placed 

 " in holes of old stumps of trees from three to six feet above 

 the ground," and were composed of " rabbits' or hares' down, 

 a little moss, and a few feathers." Mr. Charles Thurnall, in 

 a communication to the work of Messrs. Sharpe and 

 Dresser, says that in a neighbouring locality he had frequent 

 opportunities of seeing the Crested Titmouse, the habits of 

 which were exactly the same as those of the Bluecap, except 

 that it was not quite so active in its movements. The birds 

 were generally in family-parties in the topmost boughs of 

 the firs, but they frequently came to the ground, apparently 

 to pick up a seed that had dropped from the cones, and flew 

 up again immediately. For their nest "they prefer the 

 rotten stem of a fir, about twelve or fourteen feet high 

 (there are scores of such stumps standing in the wood, the 

 wind having broken the trees off at that height), and bore 

 a hole in the tree from two feet to eight feet above the 

 ground." He adds that he had also found nests in old 

 stumps of very large trees within six inches of the ground, 

 their mode of nidification being thus very like that of the 

 Coal-Titmouse. In Germany, however, the Crested Tit- 

 mouse has been known to occupy the forsaken nests of 

 Crows and Squirrels, and even, according to the statement 

 of Herr Passler aijd information furnished by Herr Carl 

 Sachse to Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser, occasionally to build 

 a nest for itself, placed in a bush and having a hole in its 

 side, like that of the Common Wren. In Scotland it breeds 

 at the end of April or early in May, and the eggs do not 

 seem to exceed five in number, though on tl''e continent 

 eight or ten are said to be laid. These are white, blotched, 

 spotted and speckled with light red, the markings being 

 bigger and more collected at the larger end than in the eggs 



