338 



THE CRESTED TIT. 



houses and neighbourhoods." But in the main he is right, for 

 these delicate birds, like the gold-crests, brave the hardest 

 winters in their native haunts, and seldom quit them, living on 

 the aurelia of the Lepidoptera tirdo, which is fastened to the 

 twigs of trees and their trunks, and found in every cranny and 

 cleft of rock in infinite profusion, forming, along with other 

 aurelia, the chief supply of those soft-billed birds which winter 

 with us ; but, for all this, and great number of young, their 

 hardy independence keeps them rare, as many perish in severe 

 winters. They breed in April ; the usual place for their nest is 

 in the centre of a thick bush or whin, difficult to find, some- 

 times on a main branch of an old tree, such as Mr Weir 

 describes, where, unless seen building, it is as difficult to see, 

 from its outside being so like the branch on which it is built. 

 Mr Hewitson truly says — 



''Amongst all the ingeniously -constructed nests we have seen of the 

 bright birds of other climes, none can surpass in beauty that of our native 

 long-tailed tit. It is in every way perfect, as the safeguard of the tiny 

 beings to be reared under its protecting roof and fostered by its warmth, 

 covered and defended as it is against every wind that blows, and formed of 

 the softest materials. Its exterior is of green moss, closely and compactly 

 woven throughout with wool, and the nests and webs of spiders, studded 

 and coated over outside like the nest of the chaffinch with pieces of grey 

 lichen. Its inside is so thickly lined with feathers as to be called in some 

 places the feather poke." 



The head, throat, and breast of this delicately handsome bird 

 are white ; above each eye is a streak of black which join 

 at the nape of the neck and form one broad black streak which 

 runs down the middle of the back ; the rest of the back and 

 scapulars are dark rose-red ; bill and tail, black ; iris, brown ; 

 but its distinguishing feature is its long black tail. 



The Crested Tit. 



(Varus Gristatus.) Linn. 



" There Damon lay, with Sylvia gay, 

 To love they thought nae crime, sir; 

 The wild birds sang, the echoes rang, 



While Damon's heart beat time, sir."— Burns. 



So far as I know this tit is not found about St Andrews ; but 

 is no proof that it is not to be found in our larger woods in 



