LONG-TAILED TITMOUSE 79 



the sole architect. They both, as it were, knead it during 

 its formation with their breasts and the shoulders of their 

 wings, aided by every variety of posture of the body. 



In reference to these varied accounts of the construction 

 of the nest of the Long-tailed Titmouse, Mr. Booth, a practical 

 field naturalist, writes: "There are some curious descriptions 

 given of the nest in various publications. It has been stated 

 that a couple of apertures are left by which means the parent 

 birds are able to dispose comfortably of their long tails, their 

 heads being reported to look out from one hole while their 

 caudal appendages protrude from the other. This, I fancy, 

 is simply imagination ; if two or more openings have been 

 found in one nest, their presence can only be accounted for 

 by the injury the structure has suffered by removal from its 

 original site. Branches or twigs are built into the outer 

 covering ; and when taken, however carefully, some part of 

 the exterior is certain to be torn ; and these openings have 

 been considered natural. I have examined nests removed 

 from oak branches, which might easily be supposed to have 

 been furnished by the builders with a couple of entrances." 



The eggs are from ten to twelve in number, and occa- 

 sionally, but very rarely, as many as sixteen. In reference 

 to these cases, Mr. H. Horsfall, of Calverley House, near 

 Bradford, Yorkshire, writes as follows in the Zoologist, p. 

 2567 : " I suspect where the greater number is found, there 

 will be more than one pair of birds attached to the same 

 nest. I have known several instances where a considerable 

 number of birds have had one nest in common : in one 

 instance there were nine." They are sometimes entirely 

 white, or with the spots almost obsolete, but generally spotted 

 a little with pale red. They are, as may be imagined, very 

 small, being not much bigger than a not large pea. 



