EUROPEAN AND BRITISH COAL TITS. 475 



the ' Field ' of its feeding on filberts ; and Montagu states that a nest of 

 young birds kept in a cage were fed chiefly on small green caterpillars. 

 The flight of the Coal Tit differs very little from that of the Blue Tit. It 

 is performed by rapid and incessant beats of the wings^ and is seldom pro- 

 longed for any great distance. 



The Coal Tit's breeding-grounds are the birch-woods, pine- and fir-plan- 

 tations, alder-swamps, and, more rarely, orchards and gardens. Early in 

 spring we hear this bird's song' — & performance scarcely deserving the 

 name, it is true, but which is perhaps the closest attempt at music 

 made by any of the Tits. The nest of the Coal Tit is generally found 

 in holes of trees and stumps ; but sometimes a hole in a wall will be 

 selected. Birch- woods are favourite haunts of this bird during the breeding- 

 season, where the abundance of holes suitable for nesting-purposes are most 

 probably the chief attraction. Here, it may be, where a large limb has 

 fallen in premature decay, leaving a hollow cavity in the parent stem, or 

 where a trunk has been riven by the storm, the bird will build its nest. It 

 will also select a hole in a large pine tree, or in the decaying alders near 

 the stream. Orchard trees are more rarely chosen; but a hole in some 

 stump in a hedgerow is a favourite place. The bird will also occasionally 

 seek out a nesting-site in the ground, generally a hole under some half- 

 exposed root or old stump. In some cases the bird will enlarge a hole for 

 its purpose. The nest resembles those of the other Tits, and is very loosely 

 put together. It is made of dry grass, moss, in some cases thickly felted 

 with hair, and lined very warmly with feathers. The eggs, from five to 

 eight or nine in number, are usually pure white spotted and freckled with 

 light red. In some specimens the spots are bold and rich in colour, chiefly 

 massed on the large end of the egg ; in others they are evenly distributed 

 over the entire surface in small dots. A beautiful clutch of eggs from 

 Pomerania in my collection, nine in number, have the ground-colour 

 delicate creamy white ; many of the markings are confluent, and all are 

 •very pale and chiefly distributed in broad wavy streaks. One egg in this 

 clutch has the colour distributed in the minutest of specks over the whole 

 surface. They vary from '7 to "58 inch in length, and from "5 to '45 inch 

 in breadth. 



The British form of the Coal Tit has the head, the sides of the nape, 

 and throat black, glossed with blue on the former ; the ear-coverts and 

 the cheeks are yellowish white ; and the nape is white ; the rest of the 

 upper parts are brown ; the wings and tail are greyish brown ; the 

 median and greater wing-coverts are tipped with dull white, forming a 

 double bar across the wings ; the breast and belly are dull white, shading 

 into huffish brown on the flanks. Bill black ; legs, feet, and claws lead- 

 colour; irides hazel. Females are not so brilliant in colour, and the white 

 patches of plumage are not so pure. The Coal Tit may at once be distin- 

 guished from the Marsh-Tit by the white patch on the nape. 



