COAL TIT. IO9 



always enable us to distinguish the Coal from the Great 

 Tit. Its notes, too, are different ; they are softer and 

 sweeter than the others : perhaps the most frequent is 

 an " if hee," which we often hear. On one occasion, 

 however, I heard a Coal Tit singing really delightfully 

 snatches of a low, sweet song, which I never heard 

 before or since. 



Mr. Dixon thinks that of late years the Coal Tit- 

 mouse has become much more plentiful than of yore, 

 whilst, on the other hand, the Marsh Tit is becoming 

 rarer ; and this he explains by the fact that the Coal 

 Tit is a bird of civilization, and the Marsh Tit a bird of 

 the uncultivated places, which in England are rapidly 

 becoming fewer. I have, however, never met this latter - 

 bird in Ireland, where one would imagine that there 

 were plenty of acceptable localities, whilst the Coal Tit 

 can hardly be said to be rare anywhere in Ireland. Mr. 

 Dresser and other naturalists consider the Coal Tit of 

 the British Isles to be distinct from that of the Conti- 

 nent of Europe. Hence the term Parus Britannicus is 

 applied to our bird, instead of Parus ater, which is 

 given to the Continental variety ; this latter has a blue 

 back. It has often been remarked that the Marsh and 

 Coal Tits are never common in the same place, and a 

 similar statement is made with regard to the Stonechat 

 and Whinchat 



The nest of the Coal Tit is placed in a hole, but, 

 according to Mr. Hewitson, nearer the ground than 

 that of any of the other Tits. Sometimes it may be 

 found in a mouse- or rat-hole. The eggs, six to eight 

 in number, are, like those of all the other Tits, white, 

 with reddish spots. 



