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equally well ; on one occasion well remembered here, 

 he unceremoniously established himself under an in- 

 verted flower pot in the garden, within a few yards of 

 a melon frame, which, of course, was visited by one or 

 other of the gardeners daily, and I have known him, 

 once at least, not indifferent to the accommodation 

 afforded by an old magpie's nest ; I have even found 

 him in possession of a nest neatly built of moss and 

 lined with hair and feathers, near the extremity of a 

 branch of yew, but I never, till this season, knew him 

 devote himself to the cares of a family under such 

 singular circumstances as those which have recently 

 come to my knowledge : Twelvemonths ago a pair of 

 these birds took lodgings in a thatched brick-shed in 

 the valley, and there in due season they, creditably 

 to themselves, reared a numerous family. Early this 

 spring I found that a pair of Robins had made their 

 bed in the same recess, but on returning a week or 

 two afterwards, I was surprised to see the Tits again 

 in possession, the hen actually sitting on a batch of 

 its own eggs and six of the Robin's ! At my last 

 visit to the nest it was so full of young ones that, in 

 the expressive language of the (late) brickmaker, it 

 was 'a'most ready to run over.' Since then, I am 

 sorry to say, some mischevious urchin has terminated 

 the experiment very much to my dissatisfaction." 

 The nest of the Long-tailed Tit, alias Bottle Tit, is a 

 wonderfully beautiful structure of an oblong form, 

 composed chiefly of moss and lichens neatly felted 

 together, lined with feathers, and having near the 

 top a small circular doorway which is often partially 

 closed, as if by accident, by one of the feathers of the 

 lining. In his notice of this bird, our local observer 

 says : " You may probably not have forgotten that 

 last season I told you I had met with a nest of the 

 Bottle Tit containing white eggs, and I well remember 

 that I gave you no description of that nest, although 

 I now think its remarkable appearance would have 



