BLUE TIT. 471 



are moss and dry grass ; and it is lined with wool, hair, and great quantities 

 of feathers, ilany nests of the Blue Tit contain as many as twelve eggs; 

 in other and more usual instances the number varies from five to eight; and 

 cases have been recorded where as many as twenty eggs liave been said to 

 have been found in one nest ; but these stories require verification. The 

 eggs are very similar in shape to those of the Great Tit, and are white in 

 ground-colour, speckled, as a rule, rather faintly with light red; they 

 measure from '7 to '55 inch in length and from -5 to ■-12 inch in breadth. 

 Both the male and female Blue Tit assist in hatching the eggs ; and you 

 can rarely drive the sitting bird from its charge. Bravely it remains upon 

 it, and, by hissing, biting, and puffing upits plumage, endeavours to defend 

 its little home. How often does the enthusiastic oologist start back in 

 alarm as the bird utters a sound like the warning hiss of a snake, fearful 

 that instead of eggs the hole in which he is about to thrust his hand con- 

 tains some poisonous reptile ! Even when you take the bird in your hand 

 its courage is none the less, and, erecting its tiny crest, it will bite most 

 viciously, and its little black eyes sparkle again with anger. So attached 

 is the little creature to its hole that no small amount of annoyance or 

 disturbance will cause it to forsake, and many indeed are the instances 

 on record of its attachment to, the site of its choice. The nests of this 

 bird are sometimes found entombed in branches and trunks, where the bark 

 has grown over, and the natural growth of the tree during the course of 

 years has closed the aperture. 



The number of our resident birds appears to be increased in autumn ; for 

 the Blue Tit is included in several of the reports of the arrival of migratory 

 birds on our shores ; and on the interesting island of Heligoland it is 

 yearly taken as it passes over in its annual wanderings. 



The Blue Tit is a very handsome little bird. It has a broad white line 

 extending from the forehead over the eyes and completely encircling the 

 crown, which is azure-blue ; another and narrower line of dark blue 

 extends from the base of the bill through and behind the eye, where it 

 meets another and broader band of the same colour, which curves down- 

 wards behind the ears and meets on the throat ; the cheeks and ear- coverts 

 are white ; the nape is bluish white, and the back and upper tail-coverts 

 are yellowish green ; the wings and tail are blue, the greater wing-coverts 

 being tipped with white. The general colour of the underparts, from 

 below the throat, is greenish yellow, paler on the centre of the belly, and 

 with an obscure bluish-black streak on the breast. Bill dusky horn- 

 colour; legs, feet, and claws lead-colour; irides dark brown. The female 

 scarcely differs from the male; but her colours are a little less briUiant, 

 Young birds have similar markings to their parents ; but their plumage is 

 yellower. The Blue Tit may be readily distinguished from all its British 

 congeners by its beautiful azure-blue crown. 



