THE TITMOUSE. 



233 



fixing it on the pin in which the handle worked. It hap- 

 pened, that during the time of building and laying the eggs, 

 the pump had not heen in use ; when again set going, the 

 female was sitting, and it was naturally supposed that the 

 motion of the pump-handle would drive her away. The 

 young brood, however, were hatched safely, without any 

 other misfortune than 

 the loss of a part of the 

 tail of the sitting bird, 

 which was rubbed off 

 by the friction of the 

 pump-handle. The 

 opening for the pump- 

 handle seems, indeed, 

 to be a favourite spot, 

 notwithstanding its 

 danger, as we knew of 

 another pair of Titmice, 

 who, for several days, 

 persevered in inserting, 

 close upon the point of the handle, the materials for a nest, 

 though, every time the handle was raised, they were either 

 crushed or forced out, till the patience of the persevering 

 little builders was fairly exhausted. 



Another pair of the same species established themselves in 

 a still more singular, though certainly less frequented spot, 

 neither more nor less than in the mouth of the skeleton of a 

 man who had been hung in chains for murder. Another 

 pair of a different species (Par us major), had wisely for- 

 tified themselves in the centre of an old Magpie's nest, where, 

 surrounded by a prickly defence of thorns, &c., they had 

 built their little warm nest without fear of molestation. 



The interior of a skull, as well as the interior of a Magpie's 

 tiest, were (however singular) at least better suited to the 

 sedentary life of a bird when sitting on her eggs, than the 

 noisy workshop of a brass-founder's factory ; yet in such an 

 unlooked-for place did a female Water- Wagtail once build 

 her nest, within a foot of the wheel of a lathe, in the midst 



Greater Titmouse. 



