VOL. VIII.] NOTES. 71 



and \\'as lightly constructed of rabbit's hair mixed with 

 doAvn -feathers from a Mallard's nest and numerous fragments 

 of decayed willow ; the lumps of hair so characteristic of 

 the nests of other Tits had been combed out and pulled 

 to pieces by these birds. 



On May 4th another Willow-Tit's nest was shown me in 

 Cranbrook by Mr. A. A. Moore, about three miles from the 

 other. It contained seven eggs, and the bird was sitting. 

 One egg had been laid on the ground before the nest was 

 completed. The nest was fifteen feet from the grotmd in a 

 willow-pole supporting wirework in a hop-garden. The hole 

 was bored by the bu'ds ; the inside wood was decayed, but the 

 bark Mas still tough. It is remarkable that the bird should 

 have foimd a suitable willow-pole among many hundreds 

 of bare poles mostly of chestnut. About tliree feet from the 

 ground, in the same post, there was a nest-cavity of a 

 previous year of which the side had fallen away. The nest 

 contained chips, and there were none on the groimd, but 

 as the hole Avas in an exposed position and high up they 

 might have been scattered by wind. The nest contained 

 no moss, but only narrow strips of wood and vegetable fibre 

 threaded among soft fibres from a sack, with a little wool 

 and a few small feathers, which altogether weighed as much 

 as a sixpenny-piece. The entrance hole was an irregular 

 circle, and the boring followed the line of the softest wood. 

 The bark was removed beside the sitting bird and I noted 

 the buff lines on the wing. 



On May 10th I examined ^ith Mr. J. Springett a nest of 

 a Marsh-Tit {Parus p. dresseri) in my garden, built in a natural 

 hole in a laurel stump. The nest-chamber \vas exceptionally 

 small, but no attempt had been made to enlarge it. There 

 were six eggs, indistinguishable from those of the WiUow-Tit, 

 and the bird was sitting. The nest weighed less than a 

 sixpenny-piece and consisted of a felted layer of cat's and 

 rabbit's hair without a particle of moss and no cliips. We 

 caught the bird on the nest and identified her. 



I consider Marsh- and Willow-Tits very hard to distinguish 

 with any degree of certainty in the field. The notes, perhaps, 

 are the most satisfactory means when one has once learnt 

 them. The nest-construction and nest-hole I place next. 

 The buff edges to the secondary wing-feathers in the Willow- 

 Tit are easily confused with lights reflected along the edges 

 of the same feathers in the Marsh-Tit. The difference in 

 the black of the head and shape of tail is not easy to see 

 imless you have the tA\o birds together. 



