12 THE SMALLER URITISH BIRDS. 



than the Tits generally, keeping together in small flocks. In their 

 movements they resemble the Blue Tit, and in their note the Cole 

 Tit, only that it has a peculiar quaver at the end, which has been 

 likened to a word spelled thus gkir-r-r-kee. 



One of the loveliest and tiniest of British birds is this, the male 

 weighing only about a quarter of an ounce, and being in length but 

 little more than four inches, it is also one of the least known on 

 account of its shyness ; a close observer, if he is only quiet and cautious 

 in his approach, may see it busily engaged in its favourite pursuit 

 among the pines, as other Tits are among the less thick and gloomy 

 trees. Up and down, round and round, tail up, and head down, or 

 in a more natural position, uttering his chirp or shorter cry, and 

 erecting or depressing his conical crest of shining black feathers, edged 

 with white, which looks, when it stands up, like a little Scotch cap, 

 and gives the wearer a peculiarly pert appearance. 



The eggs of this bird are from seven to ten in number, spotted and 

 speckled with light purplish spots, on a white ground. In its nesting 

 habits it does not differ from the other Tits, choosing almost any hollow 

 place that may be convenient; sometimes, it is said, hewing out for 

 itself a hole in a decayed tree ; that any of the Tits do this has been 

 denied, but the authority of Selby and others, who have witnessed 

 the operation, is sufficient to settle the question. 



THE MARSH TIT, 



(Parus palustris.) 



PLATE I. FIGURE V. 



THIS bird, although a frequenter of marshy ground, is by no means 

 confined to such; it may be found in wooded and cultivated districts, 

 and amid hills, as well as on salt meadows and marshes near the sea. 

 The margins of streams and ponds, and other places where there is a 

 good growth of reeds or underwood, it seems to prefer, and is not 

 often seen in hedgerows near to public roads. It is not a very 

 common species, although it may be occasionally met with in every 

 English county, as well as all over Scotland, except in the extreme 

 north, and also in Ireland, where, however, it is very unfrequent. It 

 is a constant resident in almost every country in Europe, and has been 

 found in North America, and the northern parts of Asia. 



