COAL TITMOUSE. 89 



Family PARID.t. Genus Tarus. 



Sub-family PARIN.-E. 



COAL TITMOUSE. 



Parus ater, Lijuuuis, and Parus ater eritannicus, 

 Sharpe and Dresser. 



Double Brooded. Laying season, April to June. 



British breeding area : The Coal Titmouse is 

 generally distributed throughout the British Islands, 

 although nowhere so common as the Blue Titmouse. It 

 does not, however, extend its breeding range to the 

 Outer Hebrides, the Orkneys, nor the Shetlands. 



Breeding habits : The principal breeding-grounds 

 of the Coal Titmouse are birch and oak coppices, fir 

 plantations, groves of alder trees, pine woods, and large 

 orchards. Less frequently, shrubberies, parks, and old 

 hedgerows are frequented during the nesting period. It 

 is not improbable that the Coal Titmouse pairs for life, 

 and in numbers of instances returns year by year to one 

 particular nest-hole. Certainly the birds may be seen 

 in pairs every month in the year. The Coal Titmouse 

 is more or less gregarious and social during autumn and 

 winter, but all such tendencies lapse during the breeding 

 season, and each pair keep to themselves. The nest of 

 this species is made in a variety of situations, but almost 

 invariably in a hole of some kind, or well sheltered from 

 the external air. The usual site is in a hole of some 

 tree or stump, and less frequently in a crevice or chink 

 in a wall. Occasionally a hole in the ground is .selected. 

 In many cases the selected hole is altered and enlarged 

 by the birds. The nest is made at varying depths, 

 sometimes but a icw- inches, at others a foot or even 

 more. Like that of its congener, the Marsh Titmouse, 



