4 
The following observations are from the pen of the late Captain Loche :— 
“This bird is common and sedentary in Algeria, and frequents the woods during the chief 
part of the year, but in the winter is found in the gardens. Its manner is bold and lively. Its 
food consists chiefly of insects and larve; but it also feeds on seeds; and when it can seize small 
birds, it fractures the skull by repeated blows of its beak and devours the brain. When it feeds 
on seeds, &c., it does not break them like other birds, but places them in cracks and pierces 
them with blows of the bill. Very fond of insects, it runs round the branches, everywhere 
seeking in the fissures of the bark and destroying eggs of the insect, thus doing true service to 
the agriculturist. . . . It appears in the month of March. 
«The incubation extends over twelve or thirteen days; and the young are fed by both parents 
with the greatest assiduity, and can be seen returning often to the nest with caterpillars in their 
bills. If other birds attack their progeny, the parents defend them with intrepidity and boldly 
drive off the foe. The young quit the nest in from fifteen to twenty days after they are hatched, 
but remain for long in the neighbourhood of their home, and utter a shrill and continuous cry, 
which seems to be a call-note to each other; and they remain thus together until the spring.” 
Herr W. Passler has published the following interesting note, which we transcribe herewith :— 
“On the 27th of June I watched the Great Titmouse in my garden. I lay under a plum- 
tree, below a hole in which this bird makes yearly its first nest; this year, however, it was the 
second brood. Although the nest-hole was scarcely a foot above my head, the careful parents 
flew in and out and fed their young. After a time I observed that two males were bringing food, 
whilst the female covered the young. One male was much busier than the other; and I recog- 
nized it by a loose feather on the wing. If it returned whilst the other male sat on the tree, it 
greeted the latter with friendly fluttering and tender twittering, and appeared to be pleased to 
find it keeping watch. If it was in the nest-hole with the sitting female, and the other male 
came with food to the entrance, the latter flew off as if frightened. Now and then the female 
would leave the hole for a short time to get fresh air or seek after food. As I did not observe 
any fourth bird, I concluded that the one female had either two mates or a mate and a friend.” 
The nest of the Great Titmouse is invariably placed in a hole either of a tree or a wall, 
wherever they consider it most suitable. We have found a nest in an old garden-pump, the 
entrance having been effected through the spout. . The nest is composed of a foundation of dried 
grass or moss, above which is a soft bed of hair, wool, or feathers. ‘The eggs of this bird measure 
about 34 by 26 inch, and are pure white, sparsely covered with light purplish red underlying 
shell-markings and bright red surface-blotches. 
Mr. Stevenson, in his ‘ Birds of Norfolk,’ has given some very interesting details respecting 
the breeding of the Great Titmouse. He mentions having found the eggs placed on rotten wood, 
not in the nest itself. He further gives an account of a nest, the particulars of which we tran- 
scribe in his own words :— 
“The most extraordinary nest of this species that I ever saw or read of was discovered in a 
plantation at Earlham, in the summer of 1859. This natural curiosity, which is carefully pre- 
served in the collection of Mr. John Gurney, of Earlham Hall, was discovered in a rough corner- 
cupboard, fixed at one end of an old shepherd’s house, erected in a plantation for the use of the 
gamekeeper. In the centre of the cupboard was a single shelf; and the door being kept shut, the 
