328 PARID.E. 



are more remarkable for vivacity and frequent repetition, than 

 for quality of tone. The nest, formed of moss and lined 

 with hair and feathers, is usually placed in a hollow of a tree 

 or a hole in a wall. The deserted nest of a Crow or a Mag- 

 pie is sometimes chosen. Several observers have recorded 

 the partiality so frequently evinced by this species to build 

 its nest in or about any old unused wooden pump, and the 

 mass of materials collected on such occasions wherewith to 

 construct it. The eggs are from six to nine in number, nine 

 lines and a half in length, and seven lines in breadth ; white, 

 spotted and speckled with pale red. 



This bird is common throughout the enclosed parts of most 

 of the counties of England and Wales ; Mr. Thompson in- 

 forms me it is indigenous to Ireland ; and Mr. Macgillivray 

 mentions it as a native of Scotland. It inhabits Denmark, 

 Norway, Sweden, Russia, and Siberia, even in winter. From 

 thence southwards this species inhabits the whole of the 

 European continent. The powers of flight of this bird are 

 much greater than from its appearance would be expected. 

 The Rev. Edward Stanley, Bishop of Norwich, in his " Fa- 

 miliar History of Birds," quotes from Forster's " North 

 America," vol. i. an instance of the Great Tit having been 

 met in latitude 40° north, and longitude 48° west, more than 

 half Avay across the Atlantic, in a direct line from the Azores 

 to Philadelphia. 



To return to the eastward, the Great Tit was obtained by 

 Mr. Strickland at Smyrna ; and specimens have been received 

 by the Zoological Society from Trebizond. M. Temminck 

 includes this species in his Catalogue of the Birds of Japan. 



The beak is black ; the irides dusky brown ; the top of the 

 head black, with a spot of white at the nape of the neck ; the 

 cheeks and ear-coverts white ; the back, shoulders, and co- 

 verts of the tcrtials, greenish ash ; upper tail-coverts bluish 

 grey ; lesser wing-coverts greyish blue ; greater wing-coverts 



