56 BIRDS OF CHESHIRE. 
localities it is the most abundant Titmouse, but in most 
districts it is outnumbered by the Blue Tit. Mr. N. 
Neave informs us that in the country east of Maccles- 
field it is rarer than either the Blue or Coal Tit. 
The Great Titmouse is by no means entirely 
dependent upon animal food, being partial to maize, 
nuts, and the seeds of the sunflower. In our school- 
days we have often caught it in brick-traps baited 
with bread. 
The number of eggs laid by this bird is sometimes 
very large, ten or twelve in a clutch being not unusual. 
On one occasion we found fifteen in a nest in a wall at 
High Legh; these, however, were possibly the produce 
of two females. The Great Titmouse is a close sitter, 
only leaving its eggs when compelled to do so, and 
even then, if the nest is built in a wall, it will retire to 
some crevice in the interior, and hiss angrily at the 
intruder. A bird sitting on ten eggs in a cleft thorn in 
Dunham Park neither moved nor made a sound until, 
using a twig as a lever, we raised it from the nest. 
COAL TITMOUSE. 
Parus ATER, Linnzus. 
The Coal Titmouse is a common resident, less 
plentiful than the Great and Blue Tits, but more 
numerous in most localities than the Marsh Tit. In 
the neighbourhood of Chester, however, Dr. Dobie 
finds the Marsh Tit the commoner species.! 
During the winter months this bird is much more in 
evidence than in the breeding season; and it seems 
probable that the numbers of our resident birds are 
1 Dobie, op. cit. p. 291. 
