68 BLUE TIT. 



almost seem a realization of the fable of our childhood, respecting a 

 somewhat similar locality therein assigned to the nest of Swallows. 



Mr. Hewitson records the following, communicated to him by Mr. 

 Heysham, of Carlisle: 'A few years ago, when upon an entomolo- 

 gical excursion, wishing to examine the decayed stump of a tree, 

 which was broken to pieces for that purpose, and the fragments 

 dispersed to a considerable distance by a severe blow, a Blue Tit- 

 mouse was found sitting upon fourteen eggs, in a small cavity of 

 the root; and notwithstanding the above severe shock, she remained 

 immoveable, till forcibly taken off the nest; sometimes, even if taken 

 off, she will return/ Again, 'An earthen bottle was placed on the 

 garden wall of Mrs. Chorley, of Bolton, near Lancaster; in this a 

 pair of Blue Titmice built their nest, hatched their eggs, and reared 

 their young. There was no cork in the bottle, and the birds had 

 no other way of entrance than through the mouth, going up and 

 down the neck of the bottle every time they carried food to their 

 young ones, all of which, ten in number, were reared without 

 accident, and made their escape unmolested through the neck of 

 the bottle. When they were fairly gone, the bottle was taken down, 

 and the old nest found within. The bottle was fifteen inches deep, 

 and the neck one inch in diameter. I am at a loss to know how 

 the birds could manage to ascend/ Mr. Thompson mentions a 

 similar case in an ornamental jar; and another, communicated by Mr. 

 Poole, in which the male used to feed the female through the neck of 

 the jar. 



In the 'York Herald' of June 19th., 1852, I find the following: 

 '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 genera- 

 tion 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 birth-place 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 ad- 

 joining 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 



