THE LONG-TAILED TITMOUSE. 121 



admiration they viewed for the first time at close 

 quarters the wonderful nest of " the Bottle-tit." 

 Here is an exact description of one, taken down on 

 the spot by an excellent naturalist, no other than 

 the observant Macgillivray : 



" Of very regular oval form, seven inches in 

 length, and four inches and a quarter in breadth in 

 the middle. It is composed of moss, kept together 

 by means of the flaxen fibres of plants, some wool, 

 and delicate filmy shreds, interwoven chiefly in a 

 transverse direction, and has nearly the whole of its 

 outer surface stuck over with small gray lichens, 

 which are not agglutinated, but kept attached by 

 filaments. The aperture, which is round, is an inch 

 and a quarter in diameter, and an inch and a half 

 from the summit or dome. The outer shell thus 

 formed, although well felted and interwoven, is only 

 a quarter of an inch thick. Its inner surface is 

 stuck over with large feathers ; and the whole 

 internal cavity is not only lined, but filled, with the 

 same materials. They are pretty closely compacted 

 at the bottom and along the sides, and when shaken 

 suffice to fill a hat of moderate dimensions." The 

 feathers in the nest described were counted, and, 



