200 THE TITS 



rabbit's fur. The nest of the marsh-tit is composed of a mass of moss, 

 with a lining of felted wool, hair, and rabbit's fur. Each of these 

 species occasionally will be found to cover up its eggs, until the whole 

 clutch is laid and incubation commences. 



The number of eggs laid by either of the Tits varies from six to 

 ten, but the blue-tit will lay from twelve to sixteen, and even more. 1 

 Some years ago a boy of my acquaintance having found a great-tit's 

 nest containing one egg, daily removed the second egg, until the hap- 

 less and miserably deceived bird had laid twenty-five. 



All these birds are close-sitters, but especially is this the case with 

 blue-tits. When photographing the daily growth of young blue-tits I 

 inserted two fingers into the box and removed my chosen victim from 

 beneath its mother for five days in succession, she making no attempt 

 to fly from the open box, but contenting herself with pecking my hand 

 as hard as she could by way of protest. When looked at, a brooding 

 blue-tit will so flatten herself into the nest that it is difficult to dis- 

 tinguish her from the soft feather lining. Often, however, she will 

 hiss at you. I have been told by village boys to beware of putting my 

 hand into a hole "because there was a snake inside," and may the 

 recording angel pass over the way in which I have fostered this belief 

 for the sake of the valiant blue-tits whose courage is so largely dis- 

 proportionate to their size. 



Yarrell records an extraordinary instance of persistent attachment 

 to a given nesting-site on the part of blue-tits " In 1779, according 

 to one account, in 1785, according to another, it is said that a pair of 

 these birds built their nest in a large earthenware bottle, which had 

 been left to drain in the branches of a tree in a garden at Oxbridge 

 Farm, near Stockton-on-Tees, and safely hatched their young. The 

 bottle having been allowed to remain in the same position by the 

 occupiers of the farm, then and still a family of the name of Callender, 

 was frequented for the purpose and with a like result until 1822, when, 



1 Nests of the blue-tit containing eggs or young have been reported in October, nud even 

 as late as December. See vol. i. p. 50. 



