56 BLUE TIT. 



dark blue line, the upper parts are greenish, and the 

 under parts sulphur j^ellow; the wings and tail are blue. 

 In size he is about an inch shorter than the Great Tit. 

 He is a very quarrelsome bird, and has no song but 

 a plain " zit, zit," so that, although he can be caged, 

 and becomes very tame, he hardly makes an interesting 

 pet. The nest is not often found before the beginning 

 of May. It is usually made, like that of the Great Tit, 

 in a hole of a wall or tree, and pretty much of the same 

 material — grass and moss, lined with hair, wool, and 

 feathers. The same situation is often used year after 

 year. He often chooses very droll places for nesting. 

 For several seasons past a pair has reared a brood in 

 one of the bell-posts of the school bell at Oueenwood — 

 a curious spot to choose, but the little birds seemed 

 quite satisfied with it, and quite undisturbed by the 

 vibration or noise of the great bell. ■' The spout of a 

 pump is a very favourite place. I have read of an 

 instance where a pair of these birds built their nest 

 in a bottle fifteen inches deep, entering by the neck, 

 which was only an inch in diameter; and more strange 

 still, in the mouth of a skeleton of a murderer that 

 hung on the gibbet. Many other strange places are 

 recorded — in the pocket of an old coat which had been 

 hung up in an outhouse ; in an old gun in the grounds 

 of Belvoir Castle ; in a letter-box ; but perhaps the 

 most curious place of all is one recorded in the Suffolk 

 Chronicle of 31st March, 1884. This nest was placed 

 in one of the buffer plungers of a carriage running on 

 the Clacton-on-Sea line. The only entrance to the 

 nest was through a round hole in the centre of the 

 buffer-facing. This hole was of course covered by 



* For two years this hole was usurped by Nuthatches, but 

 it is now used again by Blue Tits, 



