94 British Bifds, 



the owners of the ugly faces, as she would think, she 

 saw at her door. Often, too, have I been bitten 

 sharply by one I had laid hold of. Almost any hole 

 in any object will do for the nest-site. Even a bottle, 

 a wooden box, a pump-barrel, a queer-shaped cavity 

 in an old tree only big enough to admit such a small 

 creature, all are made available, and I knew of one in 

 a private letter-box, into which letters and post- 

 packets were daily dropped. The nest is voluminous, 

 of moss, hair, and feathers ; and the eggs are almost 

 endless. From six up to twelve or thirteen is of 

 common occurrence. Mr. Hewitson mentions one 

 case of eighteen eggs ! They are white, and spotted 

 with pale red. The journeys of the old birds to and 

 from the nest when supplying their large family with 

 food are literally innumerable; and the number of 

 small caterpillars, grubs, plant-lice, and the like, 

 destroyed by these indefatigable caterers, must be 

 simply astonishing. I think the pair just now referred 

 to made at least one visit to the nest every two minutes 

 throughout the day. The climbing, clinging habits of 

 this and other Tom-tits are very amusing; and in 

 former days I made them dance on the slack-rope for 

 my amusement and my friends'. I strung a nut or 

 two on a piece of strong thread, and tied the two ex- 

 tremities to a tree and a nail in a wall near the window, 

 respectively. This plan gave me many lengthened 

 opportunities for watching their ways. I have also 

 seen them stripping off the loose bark from pine- 

 planks and picking out the fine fat grubs which eat 

 their way between the wood and the bark. — Fig. 16, 

 plate IIL 



