68 IONG-TATLED TIT. - 
tures, sit with the head of the male out at the one, and 
the tail of the female out at the other, so that both the 
apertures are partially closed, and the male is ready to 
start out as soon as there is light enough for hunting,” 
“the male going out first in the morning, and the female 
last at night!” (Bewick says that the male has his 
head and the female her tail out of the one hole.) 
There being, however in reality, but one orifice, through 
which they ‘have their exits and their entrances,’ will 
perhaps be a sufficient answer to both these theories. 
How the birds manage, is another question, but certain 
it is that it is so. The nest is so admirably adapted, 
by the lichens or moss it is elegantly covered with, to 
the appearance of the tree it is built on, as to make it 
oftentimes very difficult to be detected. 
It is generally placed between the branches of a tree, 
unlike those of the other Titmice, and frequently not 
far from the ground, or firmly fixed in a bush; is 
composed of moss, small fragments of bark and wool, 
compacted with gossamer-like fibres, and the cocoons of 
spiders’ eggs, and the chrysalides of moths, and plen- 
tifully lined with feathers, so much so, as in some parts 
of the country to have acquired for it the ‘sobriquet’ 
of ‘feather-poke;’ one, on their being counted, was found 
to contain two thousand three hundred and seventy-nine. 
It is, as may be supposed, waterproof and very warm. 
It is from five to seven inches long, by three or four 
wide, and the aperture about an imch and a half in 
diameter, and the same distance from the upper end. 
The elasticity of the materials of the nest tend to keep 
it rather closed. One has been seen in which a feather 
of the lining acted as a valve or door, but I think that 
this was probably accidental. The fabrication of the 
nest occupies from a fortnight to three weeks; and the 
