NOTES. 227 



the Great and Blue Tits to most field-naturalists. While 

 recently working up my notes on the Paridce, however, I 

 was interested to find that the same habit has also been 

 observed in the case of our British Coal and Marsh-Tits. In 

 the " Field " for 19th May, 1900 (p. 694), Colonel T. M. Ward 

 mentions an instance of a Marsh-Tit breeding in a nesting-box, 

 which covered up her eggs until the full clutch of seven 

 was laid ; and in the same paj^er under the date of 19th 

 December, 1903, will be found another note from " A. S." 

 (Ravenglass, Cumberland), in which the writer states that he 

 has observed the same habit in the case of Marsh, Great and 

 Coal-Tits. Probably it is common to all the members of the 

 genus Parus, as Dybowski noted it in the case of the Azure Tit 

 in East Siberia ; and in the " Zoologist," 1877, p. 198, there 

 is a passage \\hich seems to prove that the northern form 

 of the Willow-Tit (P. atricapillus horealis) also covers its eggs. 

 On the other hand, the Long-tailed Tits, as far as I have noticed, 

 never cover their eggs. 



In Mr. R. J. Ussher's " Birds of Ireland " (p. 32) there is 

 an interesting note of a Blue Tit covering up its young \\\i\\ 

 nesting material to avoid observation. 



Francis C. R. Jourdain. 



I CAN confirm what Mr. Joy says as to Tits covering their 

 eggs before incubation. All the Tits do so. The Nuthatch 

 also invariably covers its eggs, and apparently also its young 

 ones, but the materials used, viz., flakes of bark and leaves, 

 are inclined to fall over them when they shuffle about. I 

 have previously recorded this habit. The habit of leaving 

 the eggs uncovered as soon as incubation commences is by no 

 means confined to Tits, as the Common Partridge which 

 carefully covei's up all her eggs to the number possibly of 

 eighteen or twenty, leaves them uncovered the last day or so 

 before commencing to sit ! Neither does she cover them 

 when off to feed, thus exposing them when they are in the 

 greatest need of protection. Ducks frequently leave their 

 eggs uncovered just when they have completed their clutch, 

 but carefully cover them when off to feed during incubation. 



E. G. B. Meade-Waldo. 



We have received a number of communications upon this 

 subject, but our space is limited, and we hope our corres- 

 pondents will deem sufficient the following extracts of the 

 essential points in their letters : — 



Mr. A. Astley, of Ambleside, confirms the habit in the 



