BIRDS. 



255 



bred there, while I maintained it did, so he wished me to send him 

 a nest and eggs, with the two old birds in the flesh, by post, and 

 for which he would give me .£5, and left his address. Next 

 season I sent him the nest, etc. etc., as he wished, and I had a 

 letter from him acknowledging their receipt, and sending a cheque 

 enclosed, and stating that he did not believe (had not believed) the 

 bird bred there, or otherwise he would not have off*ered me such a 

 price.' 



Metal post in fence by roadside near Aviemore containing Crested 

 Tit's nest ^vith six eggs, 19th May 1893. The nest was in the second 

 hole from the top, and was found by Mr. Wm. Evans. 



The Crested Tit is resident, and seldom seen outside the pine 

 woods, or where pine woods are mingled with hardwoods, or at 

 any great distance from these. It occurs over an extent of country 

 about thirty miles in length, and varying in width from three miles 

 to ten miles, here and there, over the whole area of the pine tracts 

 of Spey valley, in Abernethy, and Kothiemurchus, and Dulnan, 

 up to the base of the Cairngorms, above Loch Morlich and the 

 Larig Ghrue; and down the valley of Spey nearly to Ballindalloch, 

 where, as we were informed by Sir George Macpherson Grant, 

 it breeds in one locality. Perhaps nowhere is it more abundant 



