74 LONG-TAILED TIT. 



which they 'have their exits and their entrances/ will perhaps be a 

 sufficient answer to both these theories. How the birds manage is 

 another question, but certain it is that it is so. The nest is so 

 admirably adapted by the lichens or moss it is elegantly covered with 

 to the appearance of the tree it is built on, as to make it oftentimes 

 very difficult to be detected. 



It is generally placed between the branches of a tree, unlike those 

 of the other Titmice, and frequently not far from the ground, or 

 firmly fixed in a bush; is composed of moss, small fragments of bark 

 and wool, compacted with gossamer-like fibres, and the cocoons of 

 spiders' eggs, and the chrysalides of moths, and plentifully lined with 

 feathers, so much so, as in some parts of the country to have acquired 

 for it the ' sobriquet' of 'feather-poke;' one, on their being counted, 

 was found to contain two thousand three hundred and seventy-nine. 

 It is, as may be supposed, waterproof and very warm. 



It is from five to seven inches long, by three or four wide, and 

 the aperture about an inch and a half in diameter, and the same 

 distance from the upper end. The elasticity of the materials of the 

 nest tend to keep it rather closed. One has been seen in which a 

 feather of the lining aeted as a valve or door, but I think that this 

 was probably accidental. The fabrication of the nest occupies from a 

 fortnight to three weeks; and the credit of the handiwork belongs to 

 both male and female; she not being, as has been asserted, 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. 



The eggs are from ten to twelve in number, and occasionally, 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: f l 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 consider- 

 able 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 

 large pea. 



One variety is white, with a most elegant band of faint pink, with 

 spots on it of a deeper tint around the base. 



Another, also white, is covered all around the base with numerous 

 small dots of yellowish and orange brown. 



A third is white, with a few dots all over it of pale orange brown. 



