44 BLACK-HEADED BIRDS. 



COAL -TIT. Plate 22. Length, 4J inches. 

 Head, throat, and front of neck black ; cheeks, 

 sides of neck, and patch on the nape white ; back 

 smoky -gray; wing and tail feathers dusky, the 

 former with two thin, white cross-bars ; under parts 

 grayish-white ; sides of body brownish. Resident. 



Eggs. 6-8, or more, white, with light-red spots ; 

 7* -55 inch (plate 123). 



Nest. Of moss and wool, lined with hair, and 

 placed in a hole, not high, in a tree, wall, or decaying 

 stump. 



Distribution. General throughout the British 

 Isles ; common in the north of Scotland. 



Coal-Tits, though widely distributed, are not 

 numerous. In most parts of the country scores of 

 Great or Blue Tits may be seen for one of either the 

 Coal-Tit or Marsh-Tit. The Coal-Tit nests near the 

 ground in holes in trees or walls, and is to be looked 

 for in wooded districts, principally pine, birch, and fir 

 plantations. In autumn the birds band together or 

 with other Tits, exhibiting while searching the trees 

 for the minute life upon which they principally subsist 

 all the restless activity and eccentric posturing tricks 

 which characterise the Tit tribe generally. The Coal- 

 Tit has, with the Marsh-Tit, whose soberer colours it 

 shares, its points of difference from the more vividly 

 coloured Great and Blue Tits. It is less vehement in 

 disposition ; it goes oftener to the ground, and will 

 remain there for some little time feeding quietly ; its 

 note is thinner and more acute than those of its stur- 

 dier kinsmen. Winter brings the Coal-Tit into closer 

 contact with man, and it is at that time to be seen 



