l6 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



be mistaken for those of the Wren. It is not therefore safe to identify eggs of 

 this species, unless you have taken them yourself; and, 011 no account should the 

 statements of peasants be credited for a moment ; since they almost invariably 

 confound the Blue-Tit and the Wren. 



There is never any difficulty in identifying the eggs of Tits which one takes, 

 because the mother bird is usually in the nest and never far away : many a time 

 in spite of her hissing and pecking I have lifted her off her eggs and held her in 

 one hand whilst I examined the collection to see whether it was in condition for 

 preservation or too far incubated : if the latter, I had only to open my hand to 

 see her at once return to her duty. 



I know of no other bird which sits so closely as the Blue-Tit : in my " Hand- 

 book of British Oology" I have recorded the fact that on the 27th June, 1881, I 

 found the nest of this species in a cavity left by the removal of a brick in an 

 outhouse, where the gardener of the place kept his tools. The nest, when I 

 discovered it, contained four eggs only ; perhaps it was the last effort for the 

 season, for no more were laid. Each day I took one egg, but substituted a marble 

 for the last one, on which the Tit was contented to sit ; after three or four days 

 I removed the marble, and, a day or two later, the nest : what then was my 

 astonishment, about two days afterwards, to find the stupid bird still squatting in 

 the hole in the wall ; she had the sitting fever on her and meant to sit it out ! 



In June, 1889, a nest of ten young Blue-Tits was sent to me, one of which 

 unhappily came to hand with a broken leg : instead of nipping off the swinging 

 tarsus with a sharp pair of scissors (as I ought to have done) I bound up the 

 limb with worsted, the poor little mite looking up in my face all the time, and 

 repeatedly saying in a most piteous voice, or so it seemed to me at the time 

 " Ye mustn't forget." The leg united and formed a stiff joint, but unfortunately 

 the claws got in the bird's way when it attempted to fly, so that at last its chief 

 pleasures consisted of eating and bathing, and one morning I found it sitting up 

 dead in its bath ; possibly a cramp may have attacked its one useful leg and kept 

 it in the cold water until the chill had killed it. Of the remainder two died the 

 day after I received them, one a month later, and a fifth was still delicate at the 

 end of July ; the five others by this time were quite independent, were as tame as 

 white mice and infinitely more amusing (indeed for several months they formed 

 the principal attraction to my visitors) they used all to come down upon me the 

 moment I entered the aviary, evidently regarding me as a museum of curiosities 

 especially designed for their delectation. They would all sit together feeding out 

 of the palm of my hand ; only, every now and then, they would hop on to one of 

 my fingers and begin to hammer at the quick of the nail, which compelled me 



