TS MARSH TIT. 123 



pollards, and usually the entrance is too small to allow of 

 the nest being easily withdrawn. Colonel Montagu says 

 he " has seen this bird excavating the decayed parts of 

 such trees, and artfully carrying the chips in its bill to 

 some distance, always working downwards, and making the 

 bottom for the reception of the nest larger than the 

 entrance." Instances are recorded of the nest having 

 been placed in a rabbit-barrow or deserted rat's hole. It 

 is well built and strongly compacted of wool, moss, or 

 fine dried grass, and lined with the soft seed-down of the 

 willow. 



The eggs vary in number from five to eight; they 

 measure seven and a half lines in length by about six lines 

 in breadth ; in colour they are similar to the eggs of the 

 other Titmice white spotted with red. 



The female shows great fondness for her home, and only 

 leaves it with considerable reluctance. 



The food of the Marsh Tit consists of insects in their 

 various stages of development ; it is said to have a repre- 

 hensible weakness for bees, and also feeds on different kinds 

 of seeds, particularly those of the sunflower and the thistle ; 

 it occasionally visits gardens for the purpose of obtaining 

 the former. In fact, " the Marsh Tit may almost be said 

 to be omnivorous : nothing comes amiss to it. In winter 

 one may easily obtain an opportunity of watching its 

 habits in frosty weather by hanging up a bone, or a lump 

 of suet, or even a tallow candle, in the garden." 



The Marsh Tit may be distinguished from the Cole Tit 

 by the absence of the white patch on the nape of the neck, 

 nor has it any white spots on the wing-coverts. 



The beak is black ; the irides dark hazel ; the fore- 

 head, crown, and nape deep black ; the back, wing-coverts, 



