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 

 whicli 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 tlie 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-like 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 



