64 BLUE TIT. 
leading into an inner apartment is hollowed out by the 
bird itself ina truly marvellous manner, as smoothly as 
if wrought by the hand of man: one has been known 
to build in the end of a disused leaden pipe. 
Mr. M. Saul has narrated in the ‘‘Zoologist,” the 
following most singular instance of something akin to 
reasoning in a case of the kind, if indeed the motive 
was such as he has imagined:—‘‘Two birds made their 
appearance; one entered the hole and appeared to be 
pecking away at the wood inside, for as it managed 
to separate piece after piece, it brought them to the 
other bird, which remained at the entrance; and this last 
flew away with each piece, and carrying it to a distance 
from the tree, dropped it on the middle of the road, 
as if to avoid the detection which was almost sure to 
follow, if the chips had been carelessly dropped at the 
foot of a tree in a frequented thoroughfare.” 
The same nest is frequently repaired from year to 
year: the Revs. Andrew and Henry Mathews have 
known one resorted to for twelve successive years. It 
is said, however, that if two broods are brought up in 
the year, two different situations are chosen for the 
purpose: sometimes two pairs will quarrel for the same 
situation. 
The eggs are generally seven or eight in number, 
but have been known as few as six, and as many as 
sixteen, and some have said even eighteen or twenty, 
the usual number being from eight to twelve. They 
are of a delicate pink white, more or less spotted, and 
most so at the larger end, with clear rufous brown. 
One variety is much marked all over with washes, 
spots, specks, and blots of yellowish brown. 
Another is elegantly thus dotted over only. 
A third is white, with very faint dots. 
