PARIDE. 125 
buildings: it is made of grass, moss, hair and 
feathers. The old birds are very attached to the 
spot they have chosen for a nest, and are not easily 
to be ejected: Hewitson mentions several curious 
instances of this attachment: one such came under 
my notice some little time ago. I found my gar- 
dener hard at work picking at a hole in the garden- 
wall: on going up to see what was the matter, 
I found he was diligently trying to smash a Blue 
Tit’s eggs, and had great hopes of killing the old 
bird on the nest by poking at it with a stick; but, 
luckily for the Tit, the hole was small and had a 
turn in it, so he could not hurt the poor little bird, 
who stuck most manfully to the nest, hissing like a 
snake and fighting at the stick: as I would not 
allow the gardener to pull down the wall the Tit got 
the best of it, and brought up her brood, not quite 
in peace, but in spite of numerous interruptions and 
attacks on the part of the gardener against herself 
and her young. 
Lhe Blue Tit has the beak of a dark horn-colour, 
almost black; irides hazel; forehead, a streak over 
each eye passing to the nape, cheeks and ear-coverts 
white ; crown of the head light blue; a black streak 
passes from the base of the upper mandible through 
the eye to the nape; a black streak also passes from 
the under part of the lower mandible down the 
centre of the throat, surrounds the white on the 
cheeks and joins the streak through the eye and 
M3 
