116 



THAT'S IT; 



size, and domed, with a small 

 lateral aperture leading to the 

 interior chamber, which is lined 

 with a few dried leaves. Some- 

 times it is so placed that the 

 sheet of water falling from an 

 elevated rock, and forming a 

 cascade, completely screens it ; 

 but, wherever situated, it blends 

 with the rest of the moss and 

 l?chen, which fills up every 

 chink, and spreads over the face 

 of the humid rocks in great 

 luxuriance, and, unless the bird 

 be watched to its retreat, would 

 never be detected. The eggs, 

 five in number, are white. As 

 soon as the young are fledged, 

 they accompany their parents, 

 following them in all their move- 

 ments, playfully sporting^ divmg, 

 flitting from stone to stone, and 

 performing the most amusing 

 evolutions. 



Magpies form their nests an 

 the upper branches of trees, con- 

 structing them of twigs, 12, 

 12 



412. 



which form a rude kind of treliice- 

 work above the nest around 

 three-fourths of the circle, the 

 other part being finished off 

 smoothly, and answering for an 

 entrance. The inside is lined 



with soft roots, and other sub- 

 stances. It lays from three to 

 six eggs, pale green, freckled 

 with umber brown and light- 

 purplish grey, but varying m 

 their tints. 



The nest of the long-tailed tit- 

 mouse, 13, is woven among the 

 branches of an evergreen, ap- 

 pearing rather large externally, 



13 



H 413. 



but is beautifully patched over 

 with mosses and lichens. It is 

 lined with abundance of feathers 

 and down ; the form is oval, ap- 

 pearing to be suspended. The 

 eggs s from six to ten, are reddish- 

 white, irregularly spotted with 

 light red. 



The long-tailed tit-mouse seems the most rest- 

 ess of creatures, and is all day long in a state 

 of progression from tree to tree, from hedge to 

 hedge, jerking through the air with its long 

 tail, like a hall of feathers, or threading the 

 branches of a tree, several following each other 

 in a little stream ; the leading hird uttering a 

 shrill cry of twit, twit, twit, and away they all 

 scuttle to he first, stop for a second, and then 

 are away again, observing the same order and 

 precipitation the whole day long. The space 

 travelled by these diminutive creatures in the 

 course of their .progress, from the first morn 

 till the evening roost, must he considerable ; 

 yet, by their constant alacrity and animation, 

 1 they appear fully equal to their daily task. We 

 ! have no bird more remarkable for its family 

 ' associations than this parus. It is never seen 

 alone, the young ones continuing to accompany 

 I each other from the period of their hatching 



