THE GREAT TIT. 149 



into a long vibration (I have heard the note when a cat has been climbing the 

 tree in which the bird was, and invariably after this Tit has been caught and 

 caged). The song varies a good deal, but the best-known song of this species is 

 its ungreased wheel-barrow note, which may be heard at all seasons clicc-clii, c/iec- 

 chi, chee-chi, chee-chi. The true love song is only heard in the spring tsoo-tsoo iverry, 

 tsoo-tsoo werry, tsee tsee. 



The nest is always placed in some kind of cavity, even if it be but a gap 

 among the sticks below a Rook's nest ; but the favourite site is certainly a hole 

 in a fruit-tree sometimes a foot or more below the opening ; it may also be found 

 in a mere decayed cavity, in which case the nest is built like that of a Wren ; in 

 a flower-pot, letter-box, an old disused pump, a hole in a wall, or even in the 

 ground, and often behind detached planking and lattice-work. 



In form the nest represents two types, those built in open situations are 

 domed, formed of moss ; and, in one which I took, without any lining (although 

 it contained its full complement of eggs) ; the commoner type of nest is merely a 

 slightly concave disc at the bottom of the hole selected by the birds for their 

 nursery, and consists of a thick foundation of dried grass or moss, with an upper 

 layer of hair, wool, or feathers : occasionally (but chiefly when moss is used) 

 the moss is carried a little distance up the inner walls of the hollow trunk or 

 branch. It is no easy matter for the birdsnester to secure a perfect specimen of 

 the latter type of nest, inasmuch as one has to raise it to the entrance hole by 

 means of a long twisted wire, without losing any of the eggs, and then draw it 

 slowly through what is often a very small aperture. 



According to Seebohm the number of eggs varies from five to eleven ; but, 

 from my experience, I should say that a full clutch consisted of six eggs, and that 

 any number above six was the product of a second hen : that two hens do lay in 

 the same nest, was conclusively proved by Mr. J. C. Pool in a letter to the 

 " Feathered World" for May nth, 1894, where he noted the addition of two eggs 

 on the same day, to a nest built in a letter-box. Curiously enough Mr. Pool 

 insisted that the same hen must have laid both eggs, which is (of course) quite 

 out of the question ; moreover the nest contained ten eggs, two of which subse- 

 quently disappeared, doubtless broken during a quarrel between the two hens and 

 carried out by the victor. Mr. Pool's conviction that as he never saw more than 

 one hen, there could hardly have been two, proves nothing : the same bird could 

 not have deposited two eggs on one day.* In colour the eggs are white, spotted 

 with blood-red. 



* In the case of double-yoked eggs, I believe a day is missed before laying: a Canary of mine after laying 

 three eggs, missed a day ; then laid a double-yoked one, which took seventeen days to hatch, and produced two 

 perfect young ones. 



VOL. I. 2 C 



