124 OUR RARER BRITISH BREEDING BIRDS. 



to the accommodation afforded by the character 

 of the hole adopted and facilities of supply. 



My brother and I spent a whole day photo- 

 graphing the pair figured in the accompanying 

 illustration, which was obtained in a small Hert- 

 fordshire copse. The nest was situated about six 

 inches down the hole, showing immediately beneath 

 the head of the bird on the left, and contained 

 six or seven young ones, which we saved from 

 destruction at the hands of a number of brutally 

 cruel boys, who were prodding them with sticks 

 one day when we arrived upon the scene. 



When the camera was fixed up near the stump 

 the parent birds were shyer than either the Great, 

 Blue, or Cole Tits ; and a peculiar thing about 

 their behaviour was that, although they often went 

 in opposite directions to search for the small green 

 caterpillars with which they were feeding their 

 chicks, upon returning they always waited and 

 called for each other from neighbouring tree-tops 

 before approaching the nest. 



During the afternoon one of the parent birds 

 covered the young for a while, and when an 

 attempt was made to dislodge her, hissed with 

 great fury. 



Like the Cole Tit, when forcibly kept from 

 entering the nesting-hole with food for the young, 

 the parent birds will sit on some branch close by 

 and quiver their slightly-drooped wings, just as 

 fledglings of many species will do when about to 

 receive a supply of food. 



The eggs number from five to ten, and are so 

 much like those of several other members of the 

 family, that a sight of one of the parent birds is 

 an absolute necessity of proper identification. 



