130 BIRDS OP SOMERSETSHIRE. 



tions, orchards and hedges. Like the other Tits, it 

 is a very lively little bird, constantly climbing the 

 smallest boughs in search of food, or flitting from 

 bush to bush: sometimes a whole flock may be 

 seen following each other from branch to branch 

 through the entire length of a hedge, or streaming 

 one after another across a field to some new hedge 

 or bush. 



The nest of the Longtailed Tit is generally placed 

 in the forked branch of some thick bush, often an 

 evergreen: it is a very pretty domed structure, 

 quite covered over, only a hole being left for the 

 entrance and exit of the parent birds. From the 

 form of the nest the bird has obtained in this 

 county the unpoetical name of the " Bumbarrel 

 Bird"; from the same circumstance it has also 

 obtained the name of " Bottle Tit." The materials 

 employed in making the nest are mosses of various 

 colours, woven together with wool and hair : it is 

 thickly lined with feathers. This bird being an 

 early nester, its nest is rather subject to depreda- 

 tions. Meyer mentions having found a nest com- 

 pleted, but without eggs, as early as the 22nd of 

 March, and I have found one, with four eggs in it, 

 as early as the 9th of April : this nest, soon after, 

 when the bird was sitting, got completely saturated 

 with rain during several wet days, but this seemed 

 to make no difference to the old bird, who sat on in 

 its damp abode and duly reared its young. 



