54 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 
in a very wet condition, and sat dressing his feathers until they 
had become quite dry again. He seemed to know all the members 
of the household (who, of course, paid him a good deal of atten- 
tion), and to recognise them as benefactors; but on one occasion 
he showed much alarm when some workmen had occasion to pass 
through the kitchen, and did not recover his composure until 
they had taken their departure. After the third week we noticed 
that he was becoming weak and listless, and inclined to remain 
longer on his perch than formerly. One day he went out as usual, 
but did not return; and next morning we found on the walk, 
near his favourite corner of the garden, a few feathers and two 
legs, one of the latter showing unmistakably, by its peculiarly 
deformed condition, that it had once belonged to our little friend. 
Buve Titmouse (Parus ceruleus, Linn.). 
In a recess at the head of our avenue a letter-box is fixed, 
which is not much used except in summer. This box was a 
favourite nesting-place of the blue-tit; and on account of the 
attention it received from message-boys, who once or twice 
tampered with the lock and fastenings of the box, we had its 
mouth closed by a metal drop-slide. Sometimes the boys prop up 
the slide with a little piece of twig, which we generally discover 
and remove before the birds have been able to build their nest 
inside the box. On one occasion, however, the slide had been 
allowed to remain open, a nest was built, and the young birds were 
hatched and fully fledged before their existence became known to 
us. The little birds were extremely pretty in their fresh bright 
plumage. I placed the nest and young birds in a biscuit-box, in 
one end of which a round hole had been cut; and the box was 
fastened to the garden wall, quite near where the nest had been 
built, but out of sight of the message-boys. Ina few minutes the 
parent birds entered the garden in search of their young family, 
whose chirping in reply to the parental call was no doubt audible. 
The birds seemed at first to be somewhat perplexed by the box, 
but after examining it for a moment or two, they discovered the 
hole and entered. I watched, with much amusement, their frequent 
visits to the box, and the rapidity with which they went in and 
out at the narrow opening. In a couple of days the young birds 
had taken their flight, 
