PARIDZE. 123 
other trees, and equally busily picking the buds 
themselves to pieces and eating the germ. 
Yarrell says this bird will frequently kill other 
birds smaller than itself, accomplishing its purpose 
by repeated blows of its hard and sharp beak on the 
skull of the victim, and afterwards pick out and eat 
the brains. 
The nest of the Great Tit is generally in a hole in 
a wall or tree: Yarrell says also the deserted nest of 
a Crow ora Magpie is sometimes chosen: the mate- 
rials used are moss, hair and feathers; but Hewitson 
says the eggs are sometimes laid upon rotten wood 
alone. 
The Great Tit has the beak black; irides dusky 
brown; cheeks and ear-coverts white; head and 
throat black, glossed with blue, which colour quite 
surrounds the white on the cheeks; there is a small 
spot of white on the nape; rest of the neck, the back 
and scapulars olive-green; tail-coverts greyish blue ; 
lesser wing-coverts dusky, broadly margined with 
greyish blue and tipped with white, making a white 
bar across the wing; primary and secondary quills 
dusky, shghtly edged with greyish blue; tertials 
dusky, rather broadly edged with olive-green and 
dull white; tail-feathers dusky, much tinged with 
greyish blue, especially towards the base—the out- 
side feather on each side has the outer web white, 
and part of the inner web towards the end the same; 
breast and belly yellow, tinged with green; a black 
M 2 
