THE SINGING BIRDS. 311 



breeze, I succeeded in obtaining a peep into the nest ; there was nest within nest, the cosiest, softest, 

 warmest little nest, with eight delicately speckled eggs at the bottom of the Magpie's more spacious 

 habitation. I declined meddling with them." 



THE SOMBRE TIT. 

 The Sombre Tit (Pants lugubris). — " This bird," says Mr. Gould, " does not approach the 

 British Islands, nor even the more temperate parts of the European Continent. Its habitat is almost 

 restricted to the European confines of the Asiatic border ; it has, however, never been observed in 

 Austria, or any part of Germany, although pretty common in Dalmatia. The male and female are 

 alike in .plumage, and may be thus described : — The whole of the upper surface is of a brownish 

 ash-colour, becoming deeper on the top of the head ; the secondaries and tail-feathers are slightly 

 margined with white ; throat brownish black ; the cheeks and the whole of the under surface white, 

 slightly tinted with brownish grey ; beak and feet lead-colour." 



THE COLE TIT. 



The Cole Tit (Panes ater). — The head, neck, and upper breast are black ; the cheeks and nape 

 white. The length of the bird is four inches and a half, its breadth seven inches. The bill is black, 

 the irides hazel, the legs are lead-grey ; the upper part of the plumage is greyish, the belly yellowish 

 white. The covers of the secondaries and those above are tipped with white, forming two bars across 

 the wing. In the female the white on the cheeks is less extended. 



This species is generally spread over the continent of Europe, and is almost as frequent in Great 

 Britain as the Great Tit or the Blue Tit. It has been considered by some naturalists to be identical 

 with the Marsh Tit, but may at once be distinguished from that bird by the white patch on the nape 

 of the neck, and the white spots on the wing-covers, which are not to be found on the Marsh Tit at 

 any age. The Cole Tit frequents woods and plantations, especially those in which oak, birch, and 

 fir trees are numerous, and may be seen in company with other birds of similar habits, roving from 

 tree to tree in search of the small insects and seeds on which they subsist. " In the pine forests of 

 the Dee and Spey," says Macgillivray, " where very few birds are met with, it is pleasant to follow 

 a troop of these tiny creatures, as they search the tree-tops, spreading all round, fluttering and 

 creeping among the branches, ever in motion, now clinging to a twig in an inverted position, now 

 hovering over a tuft of leaves, picking in a crevice of the bark, searching all the boughs, some- 

 times visiting the lowermost, and again winding among those at the very tops of the trees. In 

 wandering among these woods you are attracted by their shrill, chirping notes, which they con- 

 tinually emit as they flutter among the branches." " In woodlands," says Mr. Hepburn, " it is 

 common to see it hopping along the grounds, and uttering its harsh notes, ' If hee !' ' if hee !' 

 It delights to examine a ditch that has just been cleaned out. I have seen it pull small earthworms 

 to pieces and devour them." 



" It is a matter of curious inquiry," says Gilbert White, " to trace out how those species of soft- 

 billed birds that continue with us the winter through, subsist during the dead months. The imbe- 

 cility of birds seems not to be the only reason why they shun the rigour of our winters, for the robust 

 Wry-neck (so much resembling the hardy race of Woodpeckers) migrates, while the feeble little 

 Golden-crested Wren, that shadow of a bird, braves our severest frosts without availing himself of 

 houses or villages, to which most of our birds crowd in distressful seasons, while he keeps aloof in 

 fields and woods ; but perhaps this may be the reason why they often perish, and why they are almost 

 as rare as any bird we know. 



" I have no reason to doubt but that the soft-billed birds which winter with us subsist chiefly on 



