62 GREAT TIT. 



The eggs, from six to eleven in number, are pure white, dotted 

 all over irregularly with reddish brown. 



One variety is thus much marked at the thicker end, with a few 

 scattered specks over the remainder of the surface. 



A second is very elegantly dotted with rather large spots, few in 

 number. 



A third is mottled faint orange brown, rather most so at the larger 

 end. 



The hen sits closely on them, and the male keeps a station not 

 far off, both of them equally pugnacious in defence of their progeny, 

 the latter uttering loud cries of anger or distress, and the former 

 hissing as she sits. 



The young are said, after they have left the nest, not to return 

 to it, but to perch for some time in the neighbouring trees, and 

 to keep together until the following spring. It is somewhat singular 

 that the eggs of this species resemble those of the Nuthatch, to 

 which bird it also has some similarity in the loud tapping noise it 

 occasionally makes against the trunks of trees, and which has been 

 conjectured to be for the purpose of frightening insects out from 

 under the bark. 



