220 The Naturalist in Siluria. 



A PAIR OF UNFORTUNATE BIRD MOTHERS. 



Although among the family of titmice, or tits, there is 

 much similarity in general habits, there are, nevertheless, 

 some remarkable points of difference in what may be 

 termed their moral characteristics. In most of their 

 ways no two approach nearer one another than the great 

 tit, or oxeye, and the little blue ; yet between them I 

 have of late witnessed an incident illustrative of these 

 traits of distinction. Sitting out in my grounds some 

 days ago, I observed a great tit fly into a hole in an old 

 laburnum tree, which has got decayed at the heart. 

 Approaching the place, as anticipated, I found there was 

 a nest, and the bird sitting upon eggs. To ascertain 

 their number, and whether she was in the act of hatch- 

 ing, or only laying another, I inserted fche end of a rod 

 into the cavity; when, after a little persuasion, she flew 

 off, escaping by a lateral orifice in the bark. 



The eggs proved to be nine in number; and after 

 counting them I returned to my chair, and sat watching 

 for the bird to go back to her nest, for I had ascertained 

 that the eggs were all laid, and incubation had com- 

 menced. Instead of returning, however, immediately, as 

 I expected, she remained absent; neither could I see nor 

 hear anything of her. At the time there were some men 

 doing garden work near by, who, seeing me so interested 

 about the tit's nest, said they believed there was another 

 in the wooden casing of a rain-water pipe, which they 

 pointed to. This was in an angle of the house walls, 

 about twenty feet from the laburnum, the top of the 

 casing being nine or ten above the ground. It had 

 a wooden cap, where a small aperture was observable, 

 into which the men had seen the tit enter, A ladder 



