Birds. 7445 



species with which it is associated by naturalists ; it is one of the most 

 beautiful and interesting structures that the student of birds has ever 

 discovered : its size is remarkably large for the bird, its sliape oval, 

 its position perpendicular ; the whole structure is strongly and com- 

 pactly united by the interweaving of wool with the moss and lichens ; 

 on one side is a circular hole through which the bird enters, but this 

 is scarcely visible when she is absent, so that I am inclined to believe 

 she partially closes this opening on leaving the nest, for the sake of 

 security. Mr. Selby makes an asseition with respect to this nest that 

 I have never been able to verify. "A small hole," says this dis- 

 tinguished naturalist, "is left on two opposite sides of the nest, not 

 only for ingress and egress, but also to prevent the bird, during incu- 

 bation, from being incommoded by its long tail, which ihen projects 

 through one of the orifices." Mr. Bond tells me he does not think 

 there are ever two holes. 



Egg^i, 7—9. White, delicately tinged with rose-colour until blown, 

 when they lose this hue ; there are some very minute red-brown specks 

 about the larger end. 



Bearded Titmouse, Calomophilus hiarmicus. 



Situation. Large beds of reeds in Hickliug and Hornsey Broads, 

 in Norfolk. 



Materials. " The nest is composed, on the outside, of dead leaves 

 of the reed and sedge, intermixed with a {ew pieces of grass, and lined 

 with the top of the reed. It is generally placed in a tuft of coarse 

 grass or rushes near the 'ground, on the margin of the dykes, in the 

 fen; sometimes fixed among the reeds that are broken down, but 

 never suspended between the stems." — Mr. Hoy. 



Eggs, 4 — 6. White, with pale red-brown lines. 



This bird appears to me to have no relationship to the tits, with 

 which it is always associated : in structure, nest and eggs it more 

 nearly resembles the buntings. 



Pied Wagtail, MotaciUa Yarrelii. 



Situation. Holes in stone walls, heaps of stones by road-sides, 

 quarries, roofs of porticos, pollard willows at the top of the trunk. 

 Some remarkable situations for the nests of wagtails are recorded in 

 the 'Zoologist': I will cite one. " Under a switch of the Ayrshire 

 Railway, at the Lochwinnoch Station, a pied wagtail built her nest 

 and sat on five eggs, although there was scarcely an hour in the day 

 without trains passing over it, and the whole of the engine and 

 carriages within two or three inches of the nest." — Zool. 726. 



Materials. Moss, fibrous roots, grasses, wool, horsehair. 



Eggs, 4 — 6. Gray, speckled with light umber-brown. 



