THE MARSH-TIT. 139 



Tits, the food consists mainly of insects, and its ways of feeding 

 are like those of its relations, save that it frequents the birch- 

 woods more particularly than the latter. We have also procured 

 specimens on the alder-trees in winter, when the bird was in 

 company with Siskins and Redpolls. 



Nest. A loosely-made structure of grasses and moss, and 

 plentifully lined with feathers. Like that of other Tits, it is 

 placed in a hole, either of a tree or a wall. We have ourselves 

 found but few nests of this species in the south of England, and 

 borrow the following account from Mr. Seebohm : " Birch- 

 woods are favourite haunts of this bird during the breeding- 

 season, when the abundance of holes suitable for nesting pur- 

 poses are most probably the chief attraction. Here, it may be, 

 where a large limb has fallen into premature decay, leaving a 

 hollow cavity in the parent stem, or where a trunk has been 

 riven by the storm, the bird will build its nest. It will also 

 select a hole in a large pine-tree, or in the decaying alders near 

 the stream. Orchard-trees are more rarely chosen ; but a hole 

 in some stump of a hedgerow is a favourite place. The birch" 

 will also occasionally seek out a nesting-site in the ground, 

 generally a hole under some half-exposed root or old stump. 

 In some cases the bird will enlarge a hole for itself." 



Eggs. Five to eight in number, sometimes nine. White, 

 spotted with rufous, the underlying dots being lighter rufous 

 occasionally, the rufous markings very thickly distributed, 

 generally towards the larger end of the egg. As with the other 

 Tits, occasional clutches are very faintly marked. 



\. THE MARSH-TIT. PARUS DRESSERI. 



(Plate XVL, Fig. 2.) 

 Parus palustris (nee. Linn., S. N., i., p. 341); Macg., Br. B., ii., 



p. 445 ( l8 39); Dresser, B. Eur., iii., p. 99, pi. 108 (1871); 



Newt. ed. Yarr., i., p. 495 (1874); B. O. U. List Br. B., p. 27 



(1883); Seeb., Brit. B., i., p. 476 (1883); Gadow, Cat. B. 



Brit. Mus., viii., p. 49 (1883); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B., 



pt. vi. (1888) ; Saunders, Man., p. 99 (1889) ; Wyatt, 



Brit. B., pi. 8, fig. 3 (1894). 

 Parus palustris dresseri, Stejn., Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., ix., p. 



?oo (1886). 



