360 PARID A. 
this bird produces a sound which has been considered 
to resemble the noise made in sharpening a saw; and 
though this is small praise, his notes are more remarkable 
for vivacity and frequent repetition, than for quality of 
tone. The nest, formed of moss and lined with hair 
and feathers, is usually placed in a hollow of a tree or 
a hole in a wall. The deserted nest of a Crow or a Mag- 
pie is sometimes chosen. Several observers have recorded 
the partiality so frequently evinced by this species to build 
its nest in or about any old unused wooden pump, and the 
mass of materials collected on such occasions wherewith to 
construct it. The eggs are from six to nine in number, 
nine lines and a half in length, and seven lines in breadth ; 
white, spotted and speckled with pale red. 
This bird is common throughout the enclosed parts of 
most of the counties of England and Wales; Mr. Thomp- 
son informs me it is indigenous to Ireland; and Mr. Mac- 
gillivray mentions it as a native of Scotland. It inhabits 
Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Russia, and Siberia, even in 
winter. From thence southwards this species inhabits the 
whole of the European continent. The powers of flight of 
this bird are much greater than from its appearance would 
be expected. The Rev. Edward Stanley, Bishop of Nor- 
wich, in his ‘‘ Familiar History of Birds,” quotes from 
Forster’s ‘‘ North America,” vol. i., an instance of the 
Great Tit having been met in latitude 40° north, and 
longitude 48° west, more than half way across the Atlantic, 
in a direct line from the Azores to Philadelphia. 
The Great Tit inhabits Sicily and Crete ; was obtained 
by Mr. Strickland at Smyrna; and specimens have been 
received by the Zoological Society from Trebizond. M. 
Temmick includes this species in his Catalogue of the 
Birds of Japan. 
