416 INSECTI VOILE. 



preferred to any other situation, and it is often trimmed by 

 excavation. The eggs are from six to eight or ten, of a white 

 ground with rust-coloured specks at the thick end. In the 

 latter stage of the incubation the female is a very resolute 

 sitter; and, as she has no back door for retreat, she defends 

 the entrance to the nest with great boldness and determina- 

 tion, erecting her feathers, hissing and biting very sharply, 

 and no doubt offering successful resistance to predatory birds, 

 secured as she is from attack everywhere save in front. It 

 is not personal safety that induces her to be thus bold ; for 

 if taken forcibly from the nest, she will fly straight back to 

 it, and offer the same resistance as before. It is only in the 

 later stage, however, when exposure to the air would be most 

 injurious, that she is so resolute. At other times, if an egg 

 is broken, or the nest is otherwise altered or deranged in her 

 absence, she will abandon it and commence anew ; but if no 

 accident happen, the pair (generally at least) rear only one 

 brood in the season, with which they resort to the gardens 

 (if these have not been their nesting places) rather early, and 

 commit depredations by digging into the wormed fruit. The 

 birds are of rather pugnacious dispositions, and very forward 

 in the attack of any strange bird, however large, that may 

 appear in their haunts. 



The above enumerated species comprise all the birds of 

 the genus parus, which are generally or popularly known as 

 British ; but there are two others, one of which is certainly 

 a resident, and analogy is in favour of the residence of the 

 other. Residence is, indeed, so much the habit of the genus, 

 that we could hardly look for even a straggler. The omni- 

 vorous disposition of the birds enables them to live at all 

 seasons in the same ktitudes, with only a slight thange of 

 their ground with the seasons; and, as the species which 

 remains doubtful as a British bird belongs to the zone of the 

 pine forests, and is found both on the continent of Europe 



