71 



MARSH TIT. 



MARSH TITMOUSE. BLACK-CAP. SMALLER OXEYE. WILLOW-BITER. 



JOE BENT. 



PLATE XXXIV. 



Parus palustris, PENNANT. MONTAGU. 



" atricapillus, GMELIN. 



MR. HEWITSON, on the authority of Montagu, says that considerable 

 pains are taken by this species in hollowing and scooping out a 

 suitable cavity for its nest, as it works, always downwards, in 

 forming a passage to a larger apartment at the end. Montagu has 

 observed it carrying away the chips to some distance in its bill. 



The nest is described by the former as being somewhat more 

 carefully made than that of others of the Titmice. It is formed of 

 moss, wool, grass, willow catkins, horse-hair, and any other soft 

 materials, and is placed in the hollow of a tree, snch as is 

 afforded by the head of a pollarded willow, whose decapitation has 

 been followed, as a necessary consequence, by decay. 



I have been favoured by F. W. S. Webber, Esq., of St. Michaels, 

 Penkivel, Cornwall, with a very pretty specimen of the nest of this 

 bird, formed, apparently of rabbits' fur and fine shreds of bark, in- 

 termixed with a little wool. 



The eggs are from five to seven or eight, nine, or even twelve 

 in number, of a rotund form, white, spotted with light 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. 



In some the spots are larger than in others; in some they are 

 very minute. 



