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THE ZOOLOGIST. 



be seen until the tenth day. The first nestlings had their eyes 

 open on the eleventh day. 



On the fifteenth day a curious incident occurred — the female 

 laid an egg on the young birds ! When twenty-one days old the 

 nestlings were fully feathered, and two days later they left 

 the nest. 



On leaving the box the old birds usually carried out the 

 faeces of the young, and dropped them a short distance away ; 

 apparently the faeces were never swallowed by the parents. It 

 is an interesting point to observe that, although the nest is kept 



Young Grea.t Tits, Twenty-two Days old. 



clean in this way, it is very full of vermin. Why do these 

 insect-eating birds leave these untouched ? The food carried 

 in to the nestlings consisted almost exclusively of small moth 

 larva?. 



About thirty yards from the nest there was a small spindle- 

 tree, which was at this time literally covered by the larvae of the 

 Small Ermine Moth (Yponomeuta padella) . For the first sixteen 

 days the Great Tits made no attempt to take these caterpillars. 

 Probably they were afraid of the web-like material which sur- 

 rounds the larvae of this species. 



