in captivity it cannot be trusted with any bird less 

 powerful than itself. I know of one instance in which 

 the evidence was all but conclusive of a Great Tit's 

 having killed a Long-eared Bat, upon whose brain it 

 ■was seen to be busily engaged whilst the body of the 

 little beast was still warm. 



The sites selected by this bird for nesting are 

 sometimes very remarkable. At Lilford a pair took 

 possession of a disused iron hand-pump in our kitchen- 

 garden, and reared a brood in the space between the 

 junction of the handle with the piston and the top of 

 the pump, in spite of the constant inspection of visitors, 

 who removed the said top to look in. On such occa- 

 sions the sitting bird only retired into the spout— the 

 only means of ingress and egress, and would sit therein 

 hissing and chattering till the top of the apparatus was 

 replaced. Another pair of this species in 1895 reared 

 a brood in a large circular Indian leather-bottle, sus- 

 pended at about 3 J feet from the ground in a coniferous 

 tree in our flower-garden ; the orifice of this vessel is 

 only just large enough to allow the birds to enter. A 

 brood of Redstarts were reared in this curious vessel in 

 the summer of 1894. 



This bird may fairly be called omnivorous, for 

 although its staple diet consists of insects in all stages 

 of their existence, it is very fond of seeds of many 

 kinds, and is sure to be amongst the first visitors to 

 kitchen-scraps thrown down for the birds in severe 

 weather. I believe that the Great Tit frequently rears 

 two broods in the year, but in my experience it does 

 not often use the same nest twice. The nest is com- 



