188 MUTTON BIRDS 



powder, and formed cup-shaped cavities. In 

 fact, any dry jut of sound dead timber is, on this 

 account, worth inspecting for either breed of Tit, 

 on either ish^nd. 



The typical nesting site, nevertheless, of the 

 Yellow-breasted species, is amongst great strips 

 of peeling bark, loose, and nearly dissevered 

 from the bole, and often still farther guarded 

 by a depth of wood powder, sufficient to dry-bog 

 a marauding rat. 



In the forests of the North, on the other hand, 

 a great proportion of the nests are in one most 

 favoured site, — the knee, that is, of a small tree 

 bent over an open forest path, the knee-cap gone, 

 the wound healed, its raised edges rimmed with 

 sound bark and deflecting all wet but such as is 

 directly occasioned by the falling rain. 



The nests of both species are usually placed 

 from seven to fourteen feet off the ground, and 

 built so well that scores of them can be found 

 in the winter woods dry and whole. 



November is the Yellow-breasted Tit's 

 building month, and its breeding season seems 

 to be unusually contracted, at any rate neither 

 much later in the season nor much earlier have 

 I got a nest. Except in the case of pairs who 

 through misadventure have lost their first 

 clutch of eggs or squab young, perhaps this Tit 

 may be found to build but once a year. 



During our stay in Stewart Island, over a 

 dozen nests were obtained, and several of these 

 were photographed. One in ]:)articular I had 

 long expected to get, having often watched the 

 male feeding his wife as early as the last days 

 of September, and weeks before the nest was 

 begun. When found, however, it proved quite 



