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later than those of the others. This Naumann also remarks, and states that it commences its 
migration about the middle of October, after all the rest are well on the move. 
Like the other Tits, this bird also travels during the daytime, keeping away from the open 
country, and generally amongst larger trees, and joins in the same company with other Titmice, 
Goldencrests, Creepers, &c. 
In its habits it is like the other Titmice, active, always on the move, and apparently 
continually looking after food, climbing about from tree to tree, carefully examining every 
cranny in the bark, often seeming to be actuated by curiosity rather than any other motive. 
It is agile and strong, like all its congeners, cruel, and will attack and kill a weak bird when 
confined in the same cage. Its flight is not easy, but jerky, and appears to cause the bird 
considerable exertion; still it does not fly worse than any of the other Titmice; it seldom, 
however, undertakes a flight of any great distance, but passes from grove to grove, resting 
wherever it can on the way. Its note is clear and loud, rather more modulated than that of 
the other Titmice, which it otherwise resembles. 
Its nest is generally placed in a hole in a tree, sometimes near the ground, and at others 
high up the trunk. It often builds close to houses and in orchards. The nest is composed of 
straws, moss, and fine roots, and is well lined with hair, wool, or feathers; and in April or 
May the eggs, from eight to ten or twelve in number, are deposited. These are pure white, 
marked (chiefly at the larger end) with dark red spots and blotches. Dr. E. Rey informs us 
that forty-four eggs procured near Halle averaged 14:8 by 11-6 millimetres, the largest measuring 
16°5 by 12, and the smallest 14 by 10°75 millimetres respectively. The breeding-season is 
from the 17th of April to the 7th of June; and it lays from six to eight eggs. 
The nest of this species is not always placed in a tree, but occasionally it breeds in a hole 
in the ground. We give an instance of this in our article on Parus britannicus; and our friend 
Mr. Robert Collett, in his useful little work, on the ornithology of Christiania, also gives an 
instance of this species nesting in the ground, which we translate as follows, viz.:—‘‘On the 
20th of June 1863 I found at Vasendrud, near Krederen, a nest in a queer place. I was 
examining a sandbank where a vast number of Sand-Martins breed, and found in one of the 
holes a forsaken Coal Titmouse’s nest full of rotten eggs. The Titmouse had probably built its 
nest and deposited its eggs, in what seemed to it a most comfortable place, before the arrival of 
the Martins; but when these latter arrived it was probably so frightened at the number of 
neighbours that it deserted its nest, leaving its eggs to perish.” 
Respecting its nesting-habits in Norway Mr. Collett also writes as follows:—‘“ I have never 
known this bird to hollow out its own nest-hole as do Parus borealis and Lophophanes cristatus ; 
but it makes use of any suitable hole, generally in a non-evergreen tree at the edge of a pine- 
wood; and I have not uncommonly found nests in holes in walls. It generally deposits eight 
eggs, which are sometimes laid as early as the latter part of April. 
“ Like the other species of 'Titmice, during the breeding-season the female of this bird has the 
peculiar habit, when it appears outside the nest-hole, of acting like a young bird; and often one 
is surprised at seeing early in May what one takes for a young bird calling with fluttering wings 
and following its parent; and when one shoots the supposed young bird, it turns out to be a sitting 
hen. ‘The food of the Coal Titmouse consists during the spring and summer of insects and their 
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