VOL. XIII.] . NOTES. 273 



STRANGE NESTING-PLACE OF COAL-TIT. 



The spiked iron object in the accompanying photograph 

 was a disused gas-heating boiler or circulator used for 

 greenhouses. The size can be judged by the length of the 

 hammer. It was dumped on a gravel pathway close to the 

 wooden greenhouse in a garden at Newbury, Berks. It 

 will be seen that it had two pipes of small circumference 



indicated by the points A and B. In the spring of 1919 a 

 pair of Coal-Tits {Par us a. britannicus) used this boiler as a 

 nesting-place and the young hatched out. The old birds 

 were very tame and I watched them constantly taking in 

 food. They went in and returned through the pipe A, the 

 B pipe having been plugged to keep out vermin. I think 

 one of the parent birds was killed, as the young were aban- 

 doned. We afterwards broke up the boiler and found the 

 remains of six young. J. H. Crow.. 



