LONGTAILED-TIT 187 



silken strands. Any disarrangement of the lining, however, was tidied 

 up anil smoothed by pressure of the bird's breast, before he, or she, flew 

 away ; for both sexes worked equally hard. I n an incredibly short space 

 of time the rounded body of the bird described a complete circle inside 

 the nert, after which its long tail swept round the curve to give a 

 finishing touch. To the onlooker this carefully graduated tail, spread 

 fan-like for a moment, seemed endowed with a delicacy of touch 

 almost equal to that of the human hand. Building operations com- 

 mence at dawn and continue till dusk. Yet so minute are the scraps 

 of material brought, and so exquisite the workmanship, it is not to be 

 woinlrivtl at that the structure takes many days to complete. 



When the dome is added we can only suppose that the interior of 

 the nest continues to be shaped in the manner described above. 

 The top half is completed more rapidly than the lower, because 

 both birds are able to work together one on the exterior and the 

 other on the interior of the home. Sometimes the tiny builders have 

 to go far afield for materials, and an many as 2379 feathers were 

 found in a nest described by Weir ; while I have gathered up suffi- 

 cient from the remains of a nest wantonly destroyed to supply my 

 tame squirrels with feather beds for the winter an unwonted luxury. 



I was absent from home some days after those spent in watching 

 the construction of the nest described above, and on my return I 

 found that very little progress had been made ; moreover, the half- 

 built walls were rough and untidy as if clawed by a cat. Before long 

 the reason of this was obvious. The tits had forsaken their nest, and 

 were building another in a tall holly-hedge about two hundred yards 

 away ; using the materials employed in the first home for the con- 

 struction of the second. Eventually this was completed, and they 

 hatched off their brood in safety. Apparently carpet-beating, necessi- 

 tated by a spring-cleaning orgy, disturbed the serenity of my tits and 

 induced them to move. 



Sometimes longtailed-tits build high up in the fork of a tree, 

 where the nest so exactly matches the lichen-covered branches that 



VOL. II. 2B 



