196 COLE TIT. 
it is then renewed. When the female is sitting, at least © 
towards the end of her confinement, she hisses at any ap- 
proaching enemy, and will also bite if molested. Mr. Knapp 
says of this species and the Oxeye, that ‘they will often 
acquire or compound a note, become delighted with it, and 
repeat it incessantly for an hour or so, and then seem to 
forget, or be weary of it, and we hear it no more.’ 
At the beginning of winter, when the plumage is new, all 
the feathers of the back are tipped with brownish yellow, 
which wears off into bluish grey in summer; and those on 
the lower part of the front of the neck, from being tipped 
with white, turn altogether black. 
The nest is placed in a hole of a tree, and according to 
Mr. Hewitson, at a less height from the ground than that 
of the other Titmice, even in the hollows about the roots, 
sometimes in a hole of a wall, or of a bank, or in that of 
a mouse, rat, or mole: it is made up of moss, wool, hair, 
fur, and feathers. This bird, like the Oxeye, and doubtless 
others of its race, will enlarge a hole for its accommodation 
by removing the pulverised particles of wood which have 
partially filled or lined it. 
The eggs, from six to eight in number, are like those of 
its fellows—white, spotted with light red. 
Incubation lasts about a fortnight, the male and female 
sitting by turns: the young are fed principally with cater- 
pillars. Two broods are hatched in the year, of which the 
first is fledged in May. 
Male; weight, about two drachms and a quarter; length, 
four inches and a quarter; bill, blackish or dark horn-colour, 
lighter at the edges and tip; iris, dusky; head, white on the 
sides, black glossed with blue on the crown; neck, white on 
the sides, black near the wing, with an oblong patch of white. 
Chin and throat, black; breast, dull white in the middle 
above; below and on the sides, light buff with a tinge of 
green; back, bluish grey above, verging to brownish buff; the 
feathers are singularly long, as is the case with most of 
the other 'Titmice. 
The wings underneath, grey; they expand to the width of 
seven inches and a third; greater and lesser wing coverts, 
bluish grey, the feathers tipped with white, forming two bars 
across the wings; primaries, brownish grey, edged with greenish 
grey on the outside, and on the inside with greyish white; 
the first feather is very short, the second shorter than the 
