GREAT TIT. 385 



to resemble the noise made in sharpening a saw ; and 

 though this is small praise, his notes are more remarkable 

 for vivacity and frequent repetition, than for quality of 

 tone. The nest, formed of moss and lined with hair 

 and feathers, is usually placed in a hollow of a tree or 

 a hole in a wall. The deserted nest of a Crow or a Mag- 

 pie is sometimes chosen. Several observers have recorded 

 the partiality so frequently evinced by this species to build 

 its nest in or about any old unused wooden pump, and the 

 mass of materials collected on such occasions wherewith to 

 construct it. The eggs are from six to nine in number, 

 nine lines and a half in length, and seven lines in breadth ; 

 white, spotted and speckled with pale red. 



The bird is common throughout the enclosed parts of 

 most of the counties of England and Wales ; Mr. Thomp- 

 son informs me it is indigenous to Ireland ; and Mr. Mac- 

 gillivray mentions it as a native of Scotland. It inhabits 

 Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Russia, and Siberia, even in 

 winter. From thence southwards this species inhabits the 

 whole of the European continent. The powers of flight 

 of this bird are much greater than from its appearance 

 would be expected. The Rev. Edward Stanley, Bishop 

 of Norwich, in his Familiar History of Birds, quotes 

 from Forster's North America, vol. i., an instance of the 

 Great Tit having been met with in latitude 40 north, and 

 longitude 48 west, more than half way across the Atlantic, 

 in a direct line from the Azores to Philadelphia. 



The Great Tit inhabits Sicily and Crete ; was obtained 

 by Mr. Strickland at Smyrna ; and specimens have been 

 received by the Zoological Society from Trebizond. M. 

 Temminck includes this species in his Catalogue of the 

 Birds of Japan. 



The beak is black ; the irides dusky brown ; the top 

 of the head black, with a spot of white at the nape 



VOL. i. c c 



