THE MARSH TIT 41 



a patch of pure white on the nape of the neck and on the cheeks, 

 while the head of the Marsh Tit is of a dull sooty black, without any 

 admixture of white, nor is there a white spot on the cheeks. The 

 Cole Tit is in many districts a common bird, inhabiting woods and 

 hedgerows, and feeding on insects, for which it hunts with unceas- 

 ing activity among the branches and twigs of trees. Its note is 

 less varied than that of the Blue Tit, but sweeter in tone. It 

 builds its nest in the holes of trees and walls, of moss, hair, and 

 feathers, and lays six or seven eggs. 



THE MARSH TIT 



PARUS PALUSTRIS 



Forehead, crown, head, and nape black ; upper parts grey ; wings dark grey, 

 lighter at the edges ; cheeks, throat, and breast dull white. Dimensions 

 and eggs as in the last. 



As has been said, the Marsh Tit and Cole Tit are so much alike 

 that it requires a sharp eye to distinguish them at a distance. On 

 a closer inspection, however, the characters mentioned in the 

 preceding paragraph become apparent, and there can be no question 

 that they are distinct species. The Marsh Tit is a bird of common 

 occurrence, resident south of the Forth, being in some places less 

 abundant, in others more so than the Cole Tit, while in others, 

 again, the two are equally frequent. In those districts with which 

 I am myself most familiar, it is hard to say which land preponderates. 

 Though it freely resorts to woods and plantations remote from 

 water, it prefers, according to Montagu, low, wet ground, where 

 old willow-trees abound, in the holes of which it often makes its 

 nest. Its note, I have already observed, is very like that of the 

 Cole Tit, being less harsh than that either of the Blue or Great 

 Tit. The peculiar double note, which I know no other way of 

 describing than by comparing it to the syllables ' if-he ', rapidly 

 uttered, and repeated in imitation of a sob, characterizes, in a more 

 or less marked degree, the spring song of all four. Another charac- 

 teristic of the same species is, that all the members of a brood 

 appear to keep much together for several months after they are 

 fledged. At the approach of winter, they break up their societies, 

 and are for the most part solitary till the return of spring. The Marsh 

 Tit, like the Tom Tit, has been observed to enlarge the hole which it 

 has selected for its nest, and to carry the chips in its bill to a dis- 

 tance, and it is equally courageous in defence of its eggs and young. 



