38 BIRDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



visitor to the Liverpool district, but at Urmston Mr. C. 

 E. Eeade considers it more numerous than the Great 

 Tit, it nesting chiefly in holes of trees, but also in walls. 

 Northwards, a pair or two are found in most of the 

 suitable woods, and Mr. E. J. Howard has noted it as 

 more plentiful near Hawkshead than elsewhere. It 

 nests regularly in the woods on Longridge Fell, where 

 it almost invariably chooses a hole in a tree within two 

 feet of the ground, oftenest under the roots, building 

 with moss, and lining chiefly with down mixed with a 

 few hairs. It commences to lay its eggs the last days 

 of April, and they are generally ten or eleven in number. 



MAESH-TITMOUSE. 



Parus palustris, Linnaeus. 



Eesident, and, like the Coal-Tit, more generally dis- 

 tributed during winter, though only in small numbers 

 anywhere. Except in the Furness district, from which 

 I have no notice, it appears to be found in summer in 

 most of the suitable localities, and in places it is stated 

 to be fairly plentiful : as for instance Chipping, Preston, 

 and Balderstone. In the neighbourhood of Clitheroe it 

 had not been noticed for some time until 1876, when 

 Mr. T. Altham found a nest by the Hodder ; but some 

 years before it had been identified at its nest in the 

 same valley by Mr. W. Peterkin and Mr. J. P. Thomas- 

 son, and the late Mr. Thomas Garnet t in his time too 

 used to find it. The last-named gentleman wrote in the 

 Magazine of Natural History for 1832 detailing the 

 habits of the bird when breeding, and spoke of the 

 tenacity with which it holds b}^ its nest, its hissing, and 



