216 LONG-TAILED TIT. 
resorted to frequently from year to year, is beautiful, and I 
may say wonderful. It is a hollow ball, generally nearly 
oval, with only one orifice; some have said two, to account 
for the location of the tail, which is said to project through 
one of them; and Mr. Hewitson describes one that he saw 
which had two openings, leaving the top of the nest like 
the handle of a basket, but such must be exceptional or 
accidental cases. A French writer has explained that one 
orifice is intended for a front and the other for a back door! 
Mudie writes as follows:—‘They, in the case of two apertures, 
sit with the head of the male out at the one, and the tail 
of the female out at the other, so that both the apertures 
are partially closed, and the male is ready to start out as 
soon as there is light enough for hunting,’ ‘the male going 
out first in the morning, and the female last at night!’ 
(Bewick says that the male has his head and the female 
her tail out of the one hole.) There being, however, in 
reality, but one orifice, through which they ‘have their exits 
and their entrances,’ will perhaps be a sufficient answer to 
both these theories. How the birds manage is another 
question, but certain it is that it is so, The nest is so 
admirably adapted, by the lichens or moss it is so elegantly 
covered with, to the appearance of the tree it is built on, as 
to make it oftentimes very difficult to be detected. It is 
generally placed between the branches of a tree, unlike those 
of the other Titmice, and frequently not far from the ground, 
or firmly fixed in a bush; is composed of moss, small frag-— 
ments of bark and wool, compacted with gossamer-lke fibres, 
and the cocoons of spiders’ eggs, and the chrysalides of moths, 
and plentifully lined with feathers, so much so, as in some 
parts of the country to have acquired for it the ‘sobriquet’ 
of ‘feather-poke;’ one, on their being counted, was found to 
contain two thousand three hundred and seventy-nine. It © 
is, as may be supposed, waterproof and very warm. 
It is from five to seven inches long, by three or four 
wide, and the aperture about an inch and a half in diameter, 
and the same distance from the upper end. The elasticity 
of the materials of the nest tend to keep it rather closed. 
One has been seen in which a feather of the lining acted as 
a valve or door, but I think that this was probably accidental. 
The fabrication of the nest occupies from a fortnight to three 
weeks; and the credit of the handiwork belongs to both the 
male and female; she not being, as has been asserted, the 
