THE BEARDED TITMOUSE. 



369 



deposited in April, or even at the end of March possibly, and 

 generally six in number, occasionally seven. Old Joshua, the 

 companion of my rambles, averred that he had found two nests 

 on the top of one another, and on another occasion twelve eggs in 

 one nest, while a nest sent from Hickling to Mr. Frank Norgate 

 contained ten eggs, but two of them were buried in the lining, 

 and this year one was found at Hickling with eight eggs. Joshua 



Bearded Titmouse cleaning out Nest (after Pike). 



had also known them to sometimes lay the first egg before the 

 nest was finished, and then, after a layer of material, more 

 eggs, a common habit with true Titmice (Panda). An egg 

 taken by Joshua was placed in an incubator by Mr. Evans, of 

 Edinburgh, to ascertain the duration of its incubation, a subject 

 he has specially studied, but the experiment was not success- 

 ful. John Smith, of Yarmouth, considered the period to be 



