COLE TITMOUSE AND LONG-TAILED TITMOUSE. 133 



nesting purposes, and the vast quantities of insect food 

 which there abound. He who roams through these 

 situations will find that these woods are full of decayed 

 timbers ; and the immense numbers of gigantic fungi 

 also form one of the principal features of the scene 

 before him. Here, it may be where a giant limb has 

 fallen in premature decay, leaving a hollow cavity in 

 the parent stem, or where a trunk has been riven up 

 by the fury of the wintry blasts, the Cole Tit builds her 

 nest. As is usual with the Titmice, the nest is but a 

 loose and rambling structure, made of moss, dry grass, 

 and feathers, and the eggs are from five to seven in 

 number, like those of the Blue Titmouse, only a little 

 smaller. Cole Tits will hiss and bite, and display various 

 other pugnacious motions in defending their eggs or 

 young, and the utmost difficulty is experienced in causing 

 them to quit the nesting-hole. 



The food of the Cole Titmouse is partly animal and 

 partly vegetable matter. In the spring and summer 

 insects and their larvae are sought after with unceasing 

 vigilance. You sometimes see them exploring old walls 

 for spiders, small beetles, and larvae. In the autumn 

 and winter months the insects become scarcer, and the 

 birds partly subsist on birch, fir, and other small seeds. 



Before leaving the Cole Titmouse I should mention 

 that a few years back the bird was almost a rarity, and 

 the Marsh Tit abounded. Now the reverse occurs, and 

 the Cole Tit is found commonly in the haunts of the 

 other Titmice, and the Marsh species is becoming rarer 

 every season. The matter may be partly explained 

 thus. The Cole Titmouse appears to be a bird of 

 civilisation, the Marsh Titmouse a bird of the marshy 

 uncultivated places. Therefore as the land gets reclaimed 

 from its primeval state, and drainage and tree planting 



