Bailly gives the following account :— 
“The Marsh-Titmouse is one of those that remain with us in Savoy all the year, and is 
common. It appears to affect orchards, woods in damp localities in the plains, hillocks, and is 
seen amongst the willows, ash trees, poplars, and alders that border the marshes, rivers, or water- 
courses. It seems to be rarer, even in the autumn, in the Alps, and on the sombre conifer- 
forests in the central regions whither the Parus alpestris is so fond of resorting. 
“Its habits are similar to those of the Blue Titmouse, in company with which it may often 
be seen in the parks and orchards, but it appears to me always to be less fierce and cruel. It 
is easily caught by the peasants, and in captivity is tractable, though it does not seem to thrive 
well. Its food consists of caterpillars, flies, the larvee of wasps, bees, and other insects, moth and 
butterflies’ eggs, seeds, particularly those of the sunflower, and buds of fruit-trees. 
“In October they commence to travel about, making excursions about the country until the 
first snow appears. ‘Then many flocks arrive, either alone or in company with Cole-Titmice, and 
fix their habitation in the woods on the plains, or those on the adjacent hills. In March, a few 
days before the pairing-time, they seek for suitable breeding-localities.” 
Respecting the habits and nidification of this bird we copy the following notes from 
Mr. Gould’s splendid work on the Birds of Great Britain:—‘‘The Marsh like the Coal Tit 
inhabits all the great woods in the neighbourhood of the Thames and other parts of England ; 
it also frequents coppices, hedgerows, and swampy grounds; and I have not failed to observe that 
it affects the lower trees and shaws, while the Coal Tit resorts to the higher branches of tall 
beech-trees in chalky districts as well as those of flat alluvial land; not so, however, the Marsh- 
Tit; for, although not excluded from such situations, it is less frequently found there. 
“Jn its nesting and in its general mode of nidification it also slightly differs from its fre- 
quent associate the Coal Tit, the nest being generally placed in a stub near the ground or ina 
bank-side. It varies in size according to the nature of the situation in which it is placed, being 
sometimes as small as a cricket-ball, at others half the size of a man’s hat. Rabbits’ down is a 
favourite material, and I have seen nests composed almost entirely of it. One taken from a hole 
in a birch tree was compact, cup-shaped, smooth both externally and internally, and mainly 
composed of rabbits’ hair interwoven, on the inner side, with minute chips of dried grasses, and 
on the outer side with fine moss; another, taken at Formosa, in Berkshire, was a thick matted 
structure of moss and dog’s hair, the former predominating on the outside and the hair inside. 
As an instance of the great care some birds take to prevent the detection of their nests, Mr. Bond 
tells me that he once observed a pair of Marsh-Tits, who were excavating a hole in an old tree as 
a deposit for their intended nest, carefully carry away the bits of wood in their beak one by one, 
fly over a neighbouring hedge, and there drop them—a trait in the bird’s economy which is not 
generally known, although it had been previously noticed by the celebrated Colonel Montagu, 
who ‘had seen it excavating the decayed part of the willow, carrying the chips in its bill to some 
distance, always working downwards, making the bottom for the reception of the nest larger than 
the entrance, and the nest composed of moss and thistle-down, sometimes a little wool, and lined 
with the down of the thistle.’” 
Mr. Alston further observes:—‘ In its habits it resembles the rest of the genus, keeping 
together in family parties in the summer, and consorting with other Titmice in the winter.” 
2 Pee 
103 
