192 GREAT TIT, 
on the pools. It is loud, so that it may be heard at the 
distance of half-a-mile. It has been likened by the country 
people to the words—‘sit-ye-down.’ 
The nest is usually made in a hole of a tree or of a wall, 
or erevice of a rock; sometimes the forsaken nest of a crow 
or magpie is converted into a tenement. Not unfrequently 
it is placed in a pump, either used or unused, the door-way 
being by the orifice for the handle. Another has been known 
to build far up ameng the rafters of a house; one in a window- 
frame, the entrance being through the opening for the weight; 
and another under an inverted flower-pot. It is composed of 
a quantity of moss, feathers, leaves, hair, and other materials, 
loosely compacted. Occasionally the eggs are laid on the 
dust of the wood alone; and if I may offer a conjecture on 
the subject, possibly these cases may be when a first nest 
has been taken or destroyed, and the bird is in a hurry about 
her second brood. Since writing the above, I perceive that 
Montagu has made a similar suggestion. The same site is 
often frequented from year to year, if its tenants are not 
disturbed. 
The eggs, from six to eleven in number, are pure white, 
dotted all over irregularly with reddish brown. ‘The hen sits 
closely on them, and the male keeps a station not far off, 
both of them equally pugnacious in defence of their progeny, 
the latter uttering loud cries of anger or distress, and the 
former hissing as she sits. The young are said, after they 
have left the nest, not to return to it, but to perch for some 
time in the neighbouring trees, and to keep together until 
the following spring. It is somewhat singular that the eggs 
of this bird resemble those of the Nuthatch, to which bird 
it also has some similarity in the loud tapping noise it occa- 
sionally makes against the trunks of trees, and which has been 
conjectured to be for the purpose of frightening insects out 
from under the bark. 
Male; weight, about ten drachms; length, six inches and a 
quarter; bill, black; the upper part has a broad festoon on 
the edge—a characteristic of all the Titmice; iris, dusky 
brown, lighter on the sides and at the tip; head, black on 
the crown, white on the sides, sometimes tipped with yellow; 
neck, bluish black in front, and banded on the side with the 
same, and behind the white patch. The nape has a few white 
feathers on it, making a spot; chin, black, united to the 
black on the nape; throat, black; breast, yellow, tinged with 
