88 THE BIRDS OF SUSSEX. 



up their young in a box over a verandah some fifteen feet in 

 height. Though insects are probably its principal food, I 

 have never seen or heard of its doing any mischief by 

 searching for them among fruit-buds. It feeds also on 

 various berries. Its note is difficult to describe and varies 

 considerably ; it is shriller than that of the other Titmice. 

 Moss, with short hair and wool, are felted together in the 

 structure of its nest. I have also found rabbit^s fur, and 

 sometimes, but not always, quantities of feathers, whence, 

 in common with the Long-tailed Tit, it is often called the 

 Feathcrpoke. It is, however, more generally known as the 

 Ground Tit. Mr. Jeffery mentions a nest at the bottom of 

 a post nearly two feet below the surface. 



MARSH-TITMOUSE. 



Fariis imliistris. 



Why this species has been thus named I cannot tell, as it 

 does not by any means, if at all, aifect marshy places ; and 

 although it is somewhat partial to the willow when in cat- 

 kin, and therefore attracting numerous insects, I find that 

 it frequents those species of Salix Avhich grow on land which 

 is high and dry, quite as much as those by the river-side. 

 On the high ground in my own neighbourhood it is far 

 commoner than the Coal-Titmouse, and nearly as often met 

 svith as its blue relative. Its food is the same as that of the 

 preceding species ; and it is very tame, as I can state from 

 my own observation, having often watched it picking to 

 pieces an oat, or a grain of maize, Avithin a few feet of me. 

 It is not so usual a tenant of my boxes as the Great and the 

 Blue Titmouse, nesting among the thick stems of the under- 



