PLATE I 

 BLUE TIT. Par us cceriileus 



April 29/7^, 1896. In the horizontal ash branch depicted in the Plate a pair 

 of Blue Tits were busily engaged in building their nest ; I found no fewer 

 than eight pairs of Tits nesting on this island on the Lake of Monteith, all in 

 hollow branches. After photographing the branch I ate my lunch, sitting on 

 a stone close by, and watched the little birds arriving with materials ; they 

 had evidently reached the stage of lining the nest, as I saw one of them 

 arrive with a large unwieldy mass of sheep's wool. It first tried to push this 

 into the hole, but finding this was impossible, it backed into the hole tail 

 first in a most comical manner, and succeeded in dragging the wool in after 

 it. Shortly after, the other bird arrived, and went into the hole with a small 

 feather. On going close up to the branch I heard a tremendous scrambling 

 going on down the hole, and much calling and chirping; no doubt the 

 piece of wool took a good deal of arranging. 



VOL. in. s 69 



