206 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds 



same hole in our garden wall^ with so small an entrance that you 

 can scarcely imagine that the parent birds could squeeze themselves 

 into it. 



Parus Palustris. "The Marsh Titmouse." This species also 

 you not unfrequently meet with here, though not so common as the 

 last. It may be at once distinguished from the last species by the 

 absence of the white patch at the back of the head, and the more 

 sombre tint of its general plumage. I think without doubt this bird 

 often breeds in the old pollard willows, which abound in our water- 

 meadows, though I have never yet actually found its nest. 



Tarns Caudatus. " The Long-tailed or Bottle Tit." This bird 

 is also generally well known, flying about, as it does, in summer 

 and autumn, in little parties of a dozen or more, so that you think 

 you are never coming to an end of them as they flit past you. Every 

 one knows the beautiful little nest built by this bird, out of which 

 you may extract as many feathers as a conjuror does out of his hat, 

 generally built, as it is, in a thick thorn bush, so that you often 

 cannot reach it without the help of knife or bill-hook. I have found 

 them, however, built in very unlikely places, one that I saw last 

 year being balanced on the top of a horizontal bough of a large elm, 

 some 15 ft from the ground, and supported by a little twig or two 

 sprouting out from it. 



Parus cristatus, and Parus Biarmicus. " The Crested and Bearded 

 Titmice." Of these two rare species I can gain no local information, 

 saving that Hart informs me that one of the former and two of the 

 latter were killed many years ago in the Christchurch district, and 

 which he has in his collection, one of the two specimens of the Bearded 

 Tit having been killed by the Hon. Grantley Berkley, and presented 

 to Mr. Hart. I often hope to be able some day to stumble upon a 

 pair of the latter species amongst the reed-beds and rushes of our river 

 Avon, which seem to ofier them here and there attractive retreats — 

 but as yet I have not been successful. 



MOTACILLID^. 



The family of the Wagtails are among the most elegant of our 

 smaller birds, three out of the five species which visit us being more 



