486 



The eggs are said to be occasionally sixteen or eighteen in 

 number, but not more than seven or eight are most usually 

 found. They are white, finely spotted or speckled with light 

 red, but perhaps less so than those of any o'ther British 

 species of Titmouse, and measure from '62 to '54 by from 

 47 to -43 in. 



When the Blue Titmouse has taken possession of a hole, 

 she is not easily induced to quit it, but defends her nest and 

 eggs with great courage and pertinacity, puffing out her 

 feathers, hissing like a snake, and trying to repel the fingers 

 of the intruder in such a way as to gain for her among birds' - 

 nesting boys in some parts the name of " Billy Biter ".* 

 The branch containing the nest may even be sawn off and 

 conveyed to a distance (a cruel experiment) without the 

 mother leaving it, and cases have been known in which, when 

 this has been done, she has still continued to sit on her eggs, 

 hatch them, and rear her brood. With equal persistence will 

 this species year after year use as a nursery the same hole, 

 and a remarkable instance of this kind is on record. In 

 1779, according to one account, in 1785, according to another, 

 it is said that a pair of these birds built their nest in a large 

 earthenware bottle which had been left to drain in the branches 

 of a tree in a garden at Oxbridge in the township of Hartburn, 

 near Stockton-on-Tees, and safely hatched their young. The 

 bottle having been allowed to remain in the same position by 

 the occupiers of the farm, then and still a fa^nily of the name 

 of Callender, was frequented, for the same purpose and with a 

 like result, until 1822, when, the tree becoming decayed, the 

 bottle was placed in one near by, and the tenancy continued 

 until 1851. In that year the occupiers of the farm omitted 

 drawing out the old nest, as had been their constant practice 

 before the breeding season, and in consequence the birds chose 

 another place ; but in 1852, they returned to the bottle, and 

 have since annually built in it or in a second bottle, which has 

 lately been placed close by it, up to the present year, 1873 

 with the exception of one season when a pair of the Great 

 Titmouse took possession of their inheritance. The intruders 



* By some writers this name is given as " Willow-biter." 



