PAR US CAUUATUS. 337 



more materials, flitting through the air with the rapidity of an arrow. 

 They began on the 20th of April, and on the 25th the outside being 

 completed they began to line it with feathers. They showed great 

 courage in attacking all kind of birds that came near their nest, although 

 four times their own size, and drove them away with a harsh chirp. On 

 May 1st they finished it, after twelve days of constant labour. On the 2nd 

 the first egg was laid, and to-day, the 11th, there are ten in it. When the 

 hen is sitting the male sleeps in the nest at night. I have caught them 

 both in it after sunset, about the beginning of May. How they keep their 

 tails from being injured is astonishing. Mr Selby asserts ' that a small 

 hole is left on two opposite sides of the nest, not only for ingress and 

 egress, but also to save the bird being incommoded by its long tail, which 

 projects through one of the holes.' But if this be the form in England it ie 

 not so here, for all the nests I have seen had only one small hole." 



They breed about the same time as the others, and lay from 

 7 to 12 — sometimes 16 eggs. I have seen them building in 

 the old fir wood on Tentsmuir on the first of May. Next those 

 of the uold-crested wren they are the smallest eggs we have, 

 nearly white, freckled over with red spots at the larger end. 

 On May 18th, 1855, when searching for nests through 

 Kinglassie wood (now cut clown), I heard several mouse-like 

 cries of cheep, cheep, varied with chit-chit, chack-chack, like 

 the whin-chat, but much lower. I watched and saw several 

 long-tailed tits darting about the whins and stunted birch trees. 

 It was in the middle of the wood, where there was an open 

 space as to trees, but densely rilled with whins and scrubby 

 birch. They flitted from the larger trees to the birches and 

 whins, and back again, constantly in motion, and darted so 

 quickly that but for their peculiar cry I would not have 

 noticed them. Having my gun, I reluctantly shot one for a 

 specimen, which I stuffed and still have. On December 12th, 

 1883, a bird stuffer, not so scrupulous, shot 7 out of a small 

 family flock of 14 — near the same place. In winter they fly in 

 family parties of 12 or 14, sometimes in larger flocks, and 

 associate with gold crests and cole-tits — they are easily known 

 by their long tails. In January 1883 I got one lying dead at 

 Eden, and on the 10th I saw a pretty large flock (several 

 families joined) at the harbour searching the tops of the fishing 

 boats' masts, where the grease for the " tie " of the lug sail gave 

 an inviting supply of food, amongst the frost and snow. They 

 climbed and flitted about the masts as actively as if they had 

 been trees in their native haunts, clinging to the ropes in all 

 positions. In flying from place to place they follow each other 

 in a long string, so I think Mr White of Selborne slightly in 

 error when saying, " it spends its whole time in the woods and 

 fields, never retreating for succour in the severest seasons to 



