130 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
tions, orchards and hedges. Like the other Tits, it 
is a very lively little bird, constantly climbing the 
smallest boughs in search of food, or flitting from 
bush to bush: sometimes a whole flock may be 
seen following each other from branch to branch 
through the entire length of a hedge, or streaming 
one after another across a field to some new hedge 
or bush. 
The nest of the Longtailed Tit is generally placed 
in the forked branch of some thick bush, often an 
evergreen: it is a very pretty domed structure, 
quite covered over, only a hole being left for the 
entrance and exit of the parent birds. From the 
form of the nest the bird has obtained in this 
county the unpoetical name of the ‘ Bumbarrel 
Bird”; from the same circumstance it has also 
obtained the name of “ Bottle Tit.” The materials 
employed in making the nest are mosses of various 
colours, woven together with wool and hair: it is 
thickly lined with feathers. This bird being an 
early nester, its nest is rather subject to depreda- 
tions. Meyer mentions having found a nest com- 
pleted, but without eggs, as early as the 22nd of 
March, and I have found one, with four eggs in it, 
as early as the 9th of April: this nest, soon after, 
when the bird was sitting, got completely saturated 
with rain during several wet days, but this seemed 
to make no difference to the old bird, who sat on in 
its damp abode and duly reared its young. 
