BLUE TIT. 471 
are moss and dry grass; and it is lined with wool, hair, and great quantities 
of feathers. Many nests of the Blue Tit contain as many as twelve eggs; 
in other and more usual instances the number varies from five to eight ; ai 
cases have been recorded where as many as twenty eges have been said to 
have been found in one nest; but these stories require verification. The 
eggs are very similar in shape to those of the Great Tit, and are white in 
ground-colour, speckled, as a rule, rather faintly with light red; they 
measure from ‘7 to ‘55 inch in length and from ‘5 to °42 inch in breadth, 
Both the male and female Blue Tit assist in hatching the eggs; and you 
can rarely drive the sitting bird from its charge. Bravely it remains upon 
it, and, by hissing, biting, and puffing up its plumage, endeavours to defend 
its little home. How often does the enthusiastic oologist start back in 
alarm as the bird utters a sound like the warning hiss of a snake, fearful 
that instead of eggs the hole in which he is about to thrust his hand con- 
tains some poisonous reptile! Even when you take the bird in your hand 
its courage is none the less, and, erecting its tiny crest, it will bite most 
viciously, and its little black eyes sparkle again with anger. So attached 
is the little creature to its hole that no small amount of annoyance or 
disturbance will cause it to forsake, and many indeed are the instances 
on record of its attachment to, the site of its choice. The nests of this 
bird are sometimes found entombed in branches and trunks, where the bark 
has grown over, and the natural growth of the tree during the course of 
years has closed the aperture. 
The number of our resident birds appears to be increased in autumn; for 
the Blue Tit is included in several of the reports of the arrival of migratory 
birds on our shores; and on the interesting island of Heligoland it is 
yearly taken as it passes over in its annual wanderings. . 
The Blue Tit is a very handsome little bird. It has a broad white line 
extending from the forehead over the eyes and completely encircling the 
crown, which is azure-blue; another and narrower line of dark blue 
extends from the base of the bill through and behind the eye, where it 
meets another and broader band of the same colour, which curves down- 
wards behind the ears and meets on the throat ; the cheeks and ear-coverts 
are white ; the nape is bluish white, and the back and upper tail-coverts 
are yellowish green; the wings and tail are blue, the greater wing-coverts 
being tipped with white. The general colour of the underparts, from 
below the throat, is greenish yellow, paler on the centre of the belly, and 
with an obscure bluish-black streak on the breast. Bill dusky horn- 
colour; legs, feet, and claws lead-colour; irides dark brown. The female 
scarcely differs from the male; but her colours are a little less brilliant. 
Young birds have similar markings to their parents; but their plumage is 
yellower. The Blue Tit may be readily distinguished from all its British 
congeners by its beautiful azure-blue crown, 
