226 BIRDS' NESTS 



Long-tailed Tit (A. rosea). This beautiful example 

 of avine architecture is placed in bushes, hedges, 

 thickets or trees, often those of an evergreen char- 

 acter, and may be as low as five or as many as 

 fifty feet from the ground. So elaborately is it made 

 that nearly a fortnight is taken up in its construction. 

 It is globular in shape, with an entrance hole on one 

 side near the top. The outer materials are chiefly 

 green moss and variously coloured lichens (the tint 

 varying a good deal with the situation) cemented and 

 felted together with spiders' webs and often bits of 

 wool ; the lining is chiefly a large quantity of feathers 

 and some hair. The general substance of the nest 

 very closely resembles that of the Chaffinch's cradle, 

 and the outside is usually made to resemble surround- 

 ing objects in tint, with a view to its concealment. 

 Some nests are studded all over with small, empty 

 cocoons ; others with bits of grey, or green, or golden- 

 yellow lichen, others with cobwebs, and so forth. I 

 have seen a nest of this bird with a kind of flap over 

 the entrance hole which had to be raised each time 

 the little owners entered or left their ball-like home. 

 I should say that the birds build upwards, and gradu- 

 ally encircle themselves with the outer shell. The 

 other British example is the nest of the Great Titmouse 

 (Parus major). This is exceptionally interesting, be- 

 cause the Great Titmouse generally makes an open, 

 cup-shaped nest in a hole, but sometimes it selects a 

 deserted home of a Crow or a Magpie, or the old drey 



