THE GREAT TIT, OX-EYE, OR TOMTIT 37 
Hack-muck, Bottle Tom, Mum-ruffin, and Long-pod, pet names 
though they are, are also whimsical, and prepare one beforehand 
for the information that their owner is ‘just a little eccentric ’. 
But whatever be their name, I never hear the well-known ‘ zii, 
zit’, the pass-word which keeps them together, and which always 
accompanies their journeyings, without stopping to watch the little 
family on their flight. 
The nest of this species is of most exquisite workmanship and 
beautiful texture. Its form is that of a large cacoon broadest at 
the base, or that of a fir cone. It is sometimes fastened to the 
stem of a tree, sometimes placed in a fork, but more frequently 
built into the middle of a thick bush, so that it can only be re- 
moved by cutting away the branches to which it is attached. The 
outer surface is composed principally of the white lichen which 
is most abundant in the neighbourhood, and so is least likely to 
attract attention. All the scraps are woven together with threads 
of fine wool; the dome is felted together, and made rain-proof 
by a thick coating of moss and lichen, wool and the web of spiders’ 
eggs. The wallsare of moss. The interior isa spherical cell, lined 
with a profusion of feathers. A softer or warmer bed it would 
be hard to imagine. At the distance of about an inch from the 
top is a circular opening scarcely large enough to admit one’s 
thumb. In this luxurious couch, which it has cost the female 
bird some three weeks of patient industry to complete, she lays 
ten or twelve eggs, which all in good time are developed into as 
many Bottle Tits; but by what skilful management the ten or 
twelve long tails are kept unruffled, and are finally brought to 
light as straight as arrows, I can offer no opinion. Nests are 
occasionally found containing as many’ as eighteen eggs. In these 
cases it has been affirmed that two or more females share a common 
nursery, and incubate together. Certainly it is difficult to imagine 
how a single pair can manage to supply with food so many 
hungry young birds, but there is no direct evidence of their being 
two distinct broods. 
THE GREAT TIT, OX-EYE OR TOMTIT 
PARUS MAJOR 
Head, throat, and a line passing down the centre of the breast, black; back 
olive-green ; cheeks and a spot on the nape white; breast and abdomen 
yellow. Length six inches; breadth nine. Eggs white, speckled with 
light rusty. 
As this bird is no larger than a Sparrow, its surname ‘Great’ 
must be understood to denote only its superiority in sige to other 
