THE BLUE TIT. 133 



it for three years in succession, filling up more than half the 

 box with moss, regardless of the letters which were posted 

 every day, and dropped on to the back of the sitting bird. The 

 latter never moved when the box was opened to take out the 

 letters. Another favourite breeding place of the Great Tit is 

 the inside of a large flower-pot or the stand of a statue in a 

 garden. Both these situations demand a great deal of labour 

 in lilling up the inside to the required height, and we have 

 known one instance where the hollow pedestal of a statue in 

 the pleasure-grounds of Sir Edward Shelley's seat at Avington 

 was selected. Inside this pedestal the birds had filled up the 

 base with moss to the extent of nearly a foot, and had excavated 

 more than one nest. There were only two young ones in one 

 of the nests. A few years ago a second instance of multiple 

 nests of the Great Tit came under our notice, when a pair 

 occupied a large flower-pot. This pot, with the base filled up 

 with moss, and its three nests, is now in the British Room at 

 the British Museum. Mr. Dallen, who found the nest, declared 

 that there were eggs in all three of the cups, but we fancy that 

 they must have been placed there by someone who had ex- 

 amined the nest, and not by the birds themselves, especially as 

 there is every appearance of the three nests having been used in 

 successive years. There is, therefore, some method in the mad- 

 ness of these little birds, for, when once the wide base of the 

 flower-pot has been filled with moss, there is always a foun- 

 dation in which to sink another nest in the following year. 



Eggs. From five to nine in number, sometimes, according 

 to Mr. Seebohm, as many as eleven being laid. Ground- 

 colour white or creamy-white, with numerous red spots and 

 faint underlying grey spots. As a rule the rufous spots and 

 dots are universally distributed over the egg, but occasionally 

 form a ring round the larger end. The variation in intensity 

 of the rufous colour is very marked in a series, but, as a rule, 

 the eggs in the same clutch are all similar. Axis, 0*75 inch; 

 diam., o - 6. 



THE BLUE TIT. PARUS CVERULEUS. 



(Plate XV.} 



Pants caruhiiS) Linn., S. N., i., p. 341 (1760); Macg., Br. B., 

 ii., p. 431 (1839); Dresser, B. Eur., iii., p. 131, pi. 113, 



