The Oologisis' Record, Ju7ie i, 1921. 47 



NESTING OF THE GREAT TIT. 



(Pariis major neivtoni, Prazak.) 

 By The Editor. 



On 24th May last a nesting-box near our house was observed 

 to have, in the morning, two eggs of the Great Tit hiid merely on 

 the " lloor " of the box with but the veriest beginnings of a nest 

 in the box. By the morning of the 28th idem the nest was found 

 to be completed and the ? was sitting upon seven eggs. 



A still more curious incident in the life history of the Great Tit 

 was observed in 1918. On the evening of i6th May we peeped 

 into a nesting-box containing nine young Great Tits almost ready 

 to fly, and we looked down upon what looked like a quilt of plumage, 

 the nine little ones being arranged most neatly in three rows of 

 three each. We were away from home until the 31st day of the 

 same month when, walking round the garden in the evening we 

 chanced to peep into the same nesting-box again and saw, to our 

 astonishment, a Great Tit sitting. Feeling sure that she could 

 not be brooding the little family last seen in the box we put her off 

 and foimd that there was a new nest which contained nine eggs. 

 We supposed that these eggs could not have been the produce 

 of the former tenant of the box, but in any case the incident seemed 

 extraordinary for the first nest must have been pulled out, the 

 new one built, and the nine eggs laid, all inside fifteen days. We 

 did not take any of these eggs, and cannot therefore say how long 

 they had been incubated. 



Modern methods of egg blowing are still unknown to some 

 collectors in out-of-the-way places. Some " two-hole " eggs recently 

 received from Brazil exhibit, nevertheless, the most perfect and 

 careful blowing we have ever seen. The two holes are both in 

 the centre of the sides of the eggs, and the smaller of the two is 

 in most cases so small as to be almost invisible, and so small that 

 one wonders if any air could enter by it. Even the larger of the 

 two is smaller than some of the smallest we have seen in " one-hole " 

 specimens. Notwithstanding the smallness of the holes all the 

 specimens appear to be perfectly cleansed and free from even 

 the lingering deposits of yolk sometimes seen round the holes. 



