52 WASTE-LAND WANDERINGS. 



" A noisy tit is Jack Frost's trumpeter," and there is a 

 grain of truth in this weather proverb. Like blue- 

 birds they build their nests in holes in trees, and the 

 same locality is occupied several summers in succession. 

 The association of the sexes during the winter is ad- 

 duced as plausible evidence that no divorcement and re- 

 mating occur. I have positive knowledge that, as in 

 the case of bluebirds, the locality where nesting occurred 

 was frequently revisited during the year, and occupied 

 as a shelter from severe snow-storms in midwinter. 



Since the above concerning crested titmice was writ- 

 ten, I have had an opportunity of closely observing a 

 pair of these birds while constructing a nest. Barely 

 ten paces from my study-windows stands an aged lo- 

 cust, with a great cavernous hollow in its trunk some 

 six feet from the ground. On the 18th of April, 1886, 

 I saw a pair of tits flitting to and fro among the branch- 

 es of the tree, and occasionally entering the hollow 

 trunk. The weather was very warm and spring-like. 

 These birds remained much of the time about the tree 

 until the 24th, but did not commence building a nest 

 until that day. I could not positively determine the 

 matter, but think the male only carried the materials 

 from the adjacent hill-side and garden to the tree, and 

 the female arranged them. While the male bird was 

 thus employed he sang incessantly. This work of gath- 

 ering materials for a nest continued, with some irregu- 

 larity, until May 2d, when the birds disappeared. Ten 

 days later, the tits were again about the tree, and re- 

 mained until evening; since when I have seen nothing 

 of them. 



