174 



THE USEFUL BIRDS 



tailed Tit on 24th July, 1896— the earliest find I have had the 

 fortune to make, due probably to the very mild winter of that 

 year, though the familiar calls of the birds were not heard by 

 me until some time after this date. The latest egg observed 



Bronze Cuckoo. 

 Upper figure, young ; lower figures, adults. 



was on 9th of January, 1897, also in a Yellow-tailed Tit's 

 nest, and I found a young bird as late as 1st March, 1897, by 

 which date, contrary to the usual habit, the birds had not 

 migrated northwards. 



