120 OUR RARER BRITISH BREEDING BIRDS. 



had the good fortune to find one in the latter 

 kind of situation myself. 



The exterior of the nest is made of moss, 

 which is often used in liberal quantities where the 

 cavity to be filled up is large, and the interior of 

 the same material mixed with hair, wool, rabbits' 

 down, and feathers, which are, however, sometimes 

 quite absent. 



The eggs number from five to ten. In the 

 case of the nest figured in our first illustration, 

 there were eight, and three of these were lying 

 directly beneath the rest in such a way as to 

 make one wonder how they all received an equal 

 degree of warmth from the body of the brooding 

 parent bird. Those lying at the bottom were so 

 deeply embedded in the foundations of the struc- 

 ture as to suggest that no daily or other periodic 

 turning over took place. The nest was situated 

 behind two easily removed loose stones adjoining 

 the wooden post of an occupied labourer's cottage 

 doorway. 



There is no certain way of distinguishing this 

 Tit's eggs from those laid by other members of 

 its family, except the seeing and recognising of 

 the bird itself. If this be done there can be no 

 possible mistake, for it is only likely to be con- 

 fused with the Marsh Tit, which has no white 

 mark on the back of its head, as shown in our 

 second picture, illustrating a Cole Tit going to its 

 nesting hole with food. 



Both parent birds feed their young, and are, 

 like all their congeners breeding in our islands, 

 most assiduous in their attentions to them. 



