302 BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



and under-parts yellow. Legs, toes, and claws dull 

 leaden-blue. 



The female is less brilliant and distinctive in her 

 coloration. 



Situation and Locality. In holes in trees, walls, 

 banks, and often in such queer places as disused 

 pumps, letter-boxes, stone bottles, flower-pots, boxes 

 and cocoanuts, hung in trees for its accommodation. 

 Our illustration is from a photograph of a nest in 

 a hollow fruit tree. The entrance to the nest was 

 in the centre of a decayed branch which had 

 been sawn or broken off close to the trunk, at 

 the place where the dark excrescence-like growth 

 appears, the hole through which the eggs are to be 

 seen being cut artificially through the wood, so as 

 to show its exact position. In barns, stables, cot- 

 tages, orchards, gardens, woods, and cultivated dis- 

 tricts generally, throughout the United Kingdom, 

 with exception of the islands lying to the West and 

 North of Scotland. 



Materials. Grass, moss, hair, and wool ; some- 

 times a few soft leaves woven together, with an inner 

 lining of feathers. I have met with specimens 

 containing few or none of the last. 



Eggs. Six to nine, sometimes as many as eleven 

 or twelve, white, spotted with light red or red-brown, 

 sometimes evenly distributed, at others most nu- 

 merous at the larger end. Size about -6 by -46 in. 

 A sight of parent birds only will definitely settle 

 identification. 



Time. April, May, and June. 



Remarks. Eesident. Note : a peculiar tive- 

 twe. Local and other names: Tomtit, Blue Tom- 

 tit, Billy Biter or Willow Biter, Blue Bonnet, Blue 

 Cap, Blue Mope, ^Hickwall, Nun, Titmal. A close 

 sitter, hissing like a snake when disturbed. 



