GREAT TITMOUSE. 37 



this species and the Bhie Tit are exceedingly re- 

 luctant to leave the eggs, it being often necessary to 

 push them off by main force, when they retire to 

 another part of the cavity, hissing loudly, and some- 

 times making furious dashes at the spoon and lighted 

 vesta used for convenience in extracting the nest 

 contents. In 1878 Mr. T. Altham found a Great Tit 

 sitting on its nest with no eggs under it. It was close 

 to where he was working, so he visited it every day for 

 three weeks, the bird always being on. At each visit 

 he felt under her for eggs, but never found one, and 

 supposing that a mouse took every egg as it was laid, he 

 set traps, but caught nothing. At the three weeks' end 

 he had to go away, so caught the bird, and on dis- 

 section it proved to be a female, whose fully developed 

 ovary is still in my possession. In this year too a Blue 

 Tit was doing the same thing, but she only sat on her 

 empty nest for one week, and then deserted it. The 

 Great Tit lays seven to nine eggs usually, though I have 

 seen as many as twelve, and the nest is completed about 

 the 1st of May. 



BEITISH COAL-TITMOUSE. 



Parus britannicus, Sharpe and Dresser. 



Eesident, and commonly seen almost everywhere in 

 autumn and winter, in small flocks with the other 

 species of the genus ; but much more local when breed- 

 ing, and less numerous altogether than the Great and 

 Blue Tits. Mr. John Hardy has only once seen it 

 breeding near Manchester, namely, at Barton-on-Irwell, 

 and Byerley records it as only an occasional winter 



