TENDULINE TIT. 73 



We have seen that the edifice of the Remitz is suspended from 

 above; the bird first makes the cord, which he twists round a flexible 

 branch. This cord, which is more or less long and thick, is divided 

 into two parts, one of which goes into one side of the nest, the other 

 into the other, and it is easy to observe how this cord will make at 

 first two openings, one before and one behind, and one of which, as 

 the nest advances, the birds shut up, and complete the other into a 

 pretty little door. 



The Remitz is not often seen in the north or centre of France, 

 but frequently in the southern departments, and above all on the 

 shores of the Rhone, Durance, Carclon Herault, and Lez. The male 

 and female work together, and take eighteen or twenty days to com- 

 plete the nest. This activity is surprising when the perfection of the 

 work is compared with the size and feebleness of the birds. 



The Remitz lays four or five eggs, rarely six or seven. They are 

 like those of the House Swallow, but much smaller. They are rather 

 elongated; the shell slender and dull. When just laid they are of an 

 ivory white, and a pure white when blown. Great diameter fifteen 

 millemetres, small diameter ten millemetres; weight when empty six 

 centigrammes. Bechstein and Temminck made a mistake when they 

 described small reddish spots as distributed over the shell, like the 

 eggs of the other Tits. The female lays twice in the year, — in April 

 or May, and again in July or August." 



The following interesting description of the nidification of the 

 Penduline Titmouse given by M. Taczanowski, of Warsaw, is also 

 taken from the "Revue et Magasin de Zoologie," No. 6, 1859: — 



"Having had an opportunity of seeing a great number of the nests 

 of the Remitz, and of making a collection of those variously con- 

 structed, I have been able to ascertain the way in which they are 

 built, and to correct some mistakes which have hitherto existed, from 

 the imperfect observations which have been made upon them. 



The materials which form the foundation of these nests are the 

 fibres of hemp, nettles, and long and slender filaments of the bark 

 of different species of willows, which the Remitz separates in great 

 quantity from those plants when they are dry. It attaches these 

 materials upon a single flexible branch above its fork. When it has 

 sufficient material it begins the real substance of its nest, which is 

 composed of the down of the catkins of the willow and poplar, and 

 is placed below the fork of the branch above mentioned. It first 

 forms an outline of the nest, about three centimetres wide, into 

 which it introduces at least one twig of the tree into each side of 

 the nest. When this outline is sufficiently long, it takes the ends of 



VOL. III. L 



