76 MARSH TITMOUSE 



Titmouse family, are, when first laid, of a beautiful pale 

 pink tinge, with red-brown spots. As soon as incubation 

 commences the beauty of the shell disappears, the general 

 colour becoming a dirty white, and eventually a livid hue." 



The nest from which the engraving has been made was 

 forwarded from Rutland. It appears to be entirely composed 

 of fine hair and down, with a few thin fibres of wood 

 intermixed. 



The eggs are from five to seven or eight in number, are 

 white, spotted with dull red, and most so at the thickest end, 

 the other being more free from them : they are hatched in 

 about thirteen days. The young do not fly until the end of 

 July, and even nests and eggs have then been found, but it is 

 possible that these may have been second broods. 



