72 BLUE TITMOUSE 



Mr. Thompson mentions a similar use made of an orna- 

 mental jar; and in another instance, communicated by Mr. 

 Poole, the male used to feed the female through the neck 

 of the jar. 



In the York Herald of June 18, 1852, I find the fol- 

 lowing: " So far back as the year 1779, a pair of Blue-caps 

 built their nest, and brought up their young, in a large 

 stone bottle which had been left to drain on the lower 

 branches of a plum tree, fronting the farmhouse near Stockton 

 now occupied by Mr. Callendar. During this long period, 

 seventy-three years, this bottle, with the exception of last 

 year, has been annually tenanted in the breeding-season, from 

 generation to generation, by these little gay-plumaged visitors ; 

 and as they generally lay each year about fourteen eggs, 

 it may fairly be computed that this wonderful, inexhaustible 

 bottle, has been the birthplace of above a thousand Blue- 

 caps. About thirty years ago, the old plum tree, upon whose 

 boughs the bottle was first placed, having fallen into a state 

 of decay, the bottle was placed upon the branches of an 

 adjoining plum tree, to which it is now fastened by iron 

 hoops. The little creatures, however, did not desert their 

 favourite tenement by this change. Last year they made 

 their appearance, as usual, at the bottle, but the inmates of 

 the farmhouse having neglected to draw the previous year's 

 nest out of it, the birds, not having room to build, were 

 necessitated to seek other quarters. This year, however, 

 they have built again in their old residence, where they are 

 at present daily employed in attending to the wants of a 

 numerous progeny." 



The nest is also often placed under the eaves of houses, 

 the tiles of the roof, or any suitable part, of an out-of-doors 

 building; if in a tree, the outer passage leading into an 



