192 GEE AT TIT. 



on tlie 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-do^vn.' 



The nest is usually made in a hole of a tree or of a wall, 

 or crevice 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 among the rafters of a house; one in a wmdow- 

 fratae, the entrance being through the opening for the weight; 

 and another under an inverted fiower-pot. It is composed of 

 a quantity of moss, feathers, leaves, hair, and other materials, 

 loosely compacted. Occasionally the eggs are laid on tha 

 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 the}'' 

 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 trmiks of trees, and which has been 

 conjectm-ed to be for the pm'pose 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 croAvn, 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; tliroat, black; breast, yellow, tinged with 



