142 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



attracted to the vicinity of houses by hanging up a bone or a 

 piece of fat. Mr. Howard Saunders says that this little bird 

 prises off the scales of the rough bark of a Scotch fir in the 

 pursuit of its insect food. 



Nest. Apparently a neater construction than that of most 

 Tits, though composed of the same materials, viz., moss, wool, 

 and hair. A willow-tree is often selected for its home, and the 

 nest is not, as a rule, far from the ground. In a decayed tree it 

 will often excavate its own hole, which is as neatly rounded as 

 that of a Woodpecker, and there is frequently a second exit from 

 the nest. The entrance hole is always remarkably small, as 

 may be imagined from the kindly way in which the bird takes 

 to a human skull when the litter is put up into a tree for its 

 benefit, as we have known done by our friends, Wm. Birket 

 Foster and Bryan Hook ; the occpital foramen, the hole at 

 the back of the skull, forms the entrance to this strange abode, 

 and the skull being turned upside down, the nest of the Tit is 

 amply sheltered by the palate of the deceased. 



Eggs. From five to eight in number. Ground-colour white, 

 like china, rather thickly spotted with red and reddish-brown, 

 the overlying spots being the brighter. Sometimes the egg is 

 dotted all over with rufous, but very often the spots are col- 

 lected at the larger end. Axis, o'6-o'65 inch; diam., o '45-0-5. 



THE CRESTED TITS. GENUS LOPHOPHANES. 

 LophophancS) Kaup., Natiirl. Syst., p. 92 (1829). 



Type, L. cristatus (Linn.). 



The type-species of this genus, L. cristatus, shows such a 

 preponderance of crest over the ordinary members of the genus 

 Parus, that it can scarcely be said to belong properly to the 

 latter genus, and the Crested Tit is only one of many large 

 tufted-species which are found over the northern parts of 

 Europe and of the New World. In the latter, they range as far 

 south as Mexico, and in the Old World outside Europe there are 

 several species in the Himalayan chain. 



THE CRESTED TIT. LOPHOPHANES CRISTATUS. 



Parus cristatus^ Linn., Syst. Nat., i., p. 340 (1766); Macg., Br. 

 B., ii., p. 450 (1839) ; Newt. ed. Yarr., i., p. 499 (1874;; 



