BOTTLE TIT, 



51 



feathers black ; those next the body edged with grey ; coverts black ; 

 the tail consists of twelve feathers of unequal length ; the four middle 

 ones are wholly black ; the next has a small white mark on the outer 

 web, near the point ; the others tipped and obliquely marked with white 

 on the exterior webs ; the second feathers from the middle are the 

 longest, measuring three inches and a half ; the outer feathers on each 

 side only one inch and three quarters ; the legs black. In some the 

 whole upper part of the neck is black ; the under parts greyish white, 

 except on the sides and vent, which are of a pale vinaceous colour ; and 

 across the breast is an obscure dusky band. 



This very elegant and singular species is confined chiefly to the 

 woods and thickets, where it makes a curious oval nest in the fork of 

 some bush or branch of a tree. In this particular it deviates from the 

 rest of the genus, which invariably build in some hole, — the bearded and 

 crested tits perhaps excepted, — but which remains to be discovered. 

 The nest of this bird, however, is equally well secured, being made of 

 white moss and liverwort, curiously and firmly wove together with 

 wool, covered at the top, with only a small hole on the side, and lined 

 with a prodigious quantity of feathers. This singular fabric is a work of 

 time, taking four or five weeks to complete it. 



*Derham is mistaken in saying that this bird employs " the webs of 

 spiders cast out from them when they take their flight, with which the 

 other materials are strongly tied together ;" 1 for I am certain that no 

 bird could manage to work with the threads of floating gossamer, 

 which would cling to its bill, and only embarrass it to get rid of them. 

 On the contrary, I find in a specimen of the nest now before me, the 

 basis is composed of green mosses, (Hypna, &c.,) neatly and carefully 

 felted together with fine wool, while the outside consists for the greater 

 part of white and grey tree lichens, (Parmelice, &c.,) in small bits, in- 

 termixed with the egg nests of spiders, 2 from the size of a pea and 

 upwards, part of which are drawn out to assist in felting ; so that when 

 the texture of the nest is stretched, portions of fine gossamer-like 

 threads appear among the fibres of the wool, — the circumstance, no 

 doubt, which misled Derham. His description, however, is otherwise 

 good. " Having," he says, " neatly built and covered her nest with 

 these materials without, she thatches it on the top with branchy tree 

 moss, (Hypnum proliferum,) or such like broad whitish moss, to 

 keep out rain, and to dodge the spectator's eye ; and within she lineth 



1 Physico Theology, ii. 24, Note, 1 1th edit. 



2 See Insect Transformations, pp.93 — 4. 



E 2 



