60 HABITS OF BIRDS. 



We once witnessed, near Eltham, a similar con- 

 test for places among a family of the bottle-tit (Parus 

 caudatus, RAY), whose proceedings we had been 

 watching while they flitted from spray to spray of a 

 hawthorn hedge in search of the eggs of a coccus 

 (Coccus cratagi ? FABR.). The ground was co- 

 vered with snow, and as evening approached, the 

 little creatures, whose restless activity had no doubt 

 tended to keep them warm, retreated from the open 

 hedge to the shelter of a thick holly u the leading 

 bird," as Mr. Knapp correctly describes their manner 

 of proceeding, " uttering a shrill cry of twit, twit, 

 twit, and away they all scuttled to be first, stopping 

 for a second, and then away again*." When they 

 had all assembled, however, on an under bough of 

 the holly, they began to crowd together, fidgetting 

 and wedging themselves between one another as the 

 sparrows had done ; but whether they intended to 

 roost there, or were merely settling the order of pre- 

 cedence, before retiring into some hole in the tree, 

 we did not ascertain, for, in our eagerness to observe 

 what they were about, we approached so near as to 

 alarm them, and they all flew off to a distant field f. 



That this contest for places among the little bottle- 

 tits was only previous to retreating into some more 

 snug corner for the night, appears to us probable, 

 from the known habits of their congeners, and also 

 from what we daily observe among sparrows. Every 

 evening, before going into their roosting holes, the 

 sparrows assemble on some adjacent tree or house- 

 top, squabbling and shifting places for a consider- 

 able time, and then dropping off one by one accord- 

 ing as they seem to have agreed upon the etiquette of 

 precedence. Hardy as they certainly are, sparrows 

 manifest great dislike to exposure during the night ; 

 and, accordingly, they may be observed taking ad- 



* Journal of a Naturalist, p. 164, 3d edit. f J - R - 



