4 
‘Huddersfield Naturalist, mentions an instance of a hen Coal Titmouse which laid a third 
sitting of eggs and reared a brood, after two previous nests, containing altogether twenty-five 
eges, had been robbed. 
With regard to its distribution during the breeding-season, Mr. A. G. More says that it 
“nests all over Great Britain, to the far north: Mr. Dunbar finds the nest as far north as Suther- 
land. The late Mr. St. John also noticed the bird in the same county; and Macgillivray describes 
it as plentiful in the pine-forests in the north of Scotland.” 
The food of the Coal Titmouse consists of all kinds of small insects which infest forest trees 
(especially those found on the conifers), aphides, larvee, &c., and also seeds and berries of various 
evergreens; our friend Mr. F. Bond writes to us that he has often seen the Coal Titmouse pecking 
at beech-nuts to get at the kernel, and that in the autumn it is very fond of the berries of the 
candleberry myrtle or snowberry, a common shrub in gardens. 
Mr. Tegetmeier has recorded in ‘The Field’ the following particulars as to this species 
feeding on filberts:—‘“ A few days ago my attention was called by Mr. Powell, of Brentford, to 
some specimens of filberts which had been attacked by a flock of small birds. These were so 
numerous as to have materially injured the crop. One of the birds was forwarded with the 
perforated nuts, and proved to be the small Coal Tit. I confess to having been sceptical as to 
the fact of so small a bird being capable of causing so great an amount of injury to hard-shelled 
nuts; but the microscope soon disclosed the fact that the contents of the gizzard (the Tits are 
destitute of a crop) were almost exclusively small particles of the kernels. With these were 
mixed a few small grains of grit and one or two limbs of insects. This observation is interesting, 
as it has generally been asserted that the Coal Tit feeds exclusively on insects and small seeds. 
Thus Montagu, in his ‘ Ornithological Dictionary,’ states, ‘it seems to live entirely on insects, as 
we have never been able to discover it partaking of flesh or grain with the other species.’ There 
can be no doubt that the balance of good or evil effected by the Coal Tit is in favour of the 
former. During a great part of the year it is an insect-feeder, and its depredations on filberts 
appear not to have been previously recorded. A nest of young birds put into a cage were stated 
by Montagu to be fed principally on small green caterpillars.” 
We give the above note, as Mr. Tegetmeier has carefully verified the data; but at the same 
time we must say that we have often observed the Coal Titmouse in the filbert-gardens in Kent, 
and have never known it to bore into a nut unless it had been previously attacked by an insect. 
The specimen figured in the Plate is one shot by Sharpe in September 1871, on the Marquis 
of Huntly’s estate at Aboyne: those described are in our own collection, except the young 
bird, which is in the possession of Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun. 
In the preparation of the above article we have examined the following specimens :— 
E Mus. Sharpe and Dresser. 
a, b,c, d,e. Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, N. B., September 23rd, 1871 (R. B. Sharpe). f,g,h, i,j,k. Northrepps, 
Norwich, March 1872 (J. H. Gurney). 1,m,n,0, p,q. Hampstead (C. R. Davy). 7. Avington, Hamp- 
shire, November 4th, 1870 (G. E. Shelley). 
