BLUE TITMOUSE. 145 



evidently soon after this difficulty had been accom- 

 plished. In the third year, after I had been some time 

 aware that he young were hatched, I one morning 

 found the old pair feeding a youngster, quite unable to 

 fly, on the open grass-plot, and thinking he had some^ 

 how tumbled out of the nursery I replaced him for fear 

 of the cats. Next day, however, both old and young 

 were gone, and on afterwards dragging out the con- 

 tents of the nest-hole, I found three young half-fledged 

 nestlings quite dead, which had evidently been so for 

 some time, and probably from these becoming offensive, 

 the parents had somehow carried off the survivor 

 who was quite incapable of assisting himself; yet, how 

 this was accomplished remains to this day a mystery to 

 me. From that time the hole was deserted, this little 

 catastrophe having doubtless given them a distaste for 

 their old haunt. 



The following facts as to a most singular nesting 

 place of this species I can vouch for from personal 

 observation: In the spring of 1857, a pair of blue- 

 tits built their nest in the interior of a door-post, 

 forming part of the back entrance to a house, a 

 short distance from Norwich. On the inner side of 

 the door-post was the usual brass plate, with three 

 square openings for the lock, sneck, and bolt to shoot 

 backwards and forwards in. Through the largest 

 of these, the woodwork being rotted away, the birds 

 obtained access to their strange nesting place. The 

 materials were carried in bit by bit, regardless of 

 the constant passing to and fro of the servants, and 

 their presence was intimated by a loud hiss whenever 

 a finger or stick was intruded into their domicile. The 

 most singular thing, however, was the fact that the 

 door, though open during the day, was always 

 locked at night, thus shutting in these little tenants 

 without a chance of escape until morning, the lock 

 u 



