38 



GREAT TITMOUSE. 



Weight about ten drachms : length near six 

 inches : beak black : irides dusky: head and throat 

 black : cheeks white : back olive green : rump 

 blueish grey : belly yellow, tinged with green, 

 with a broad black stripe down the middle, reach- 

 ing to the vent i quills dusky : wing-coverts blue- 

 ish, the greater ones tipped with white: tail dusky; 

 the outer feathers white on the exterior webs ; the 

 others margined with blueish grey : legs lead- 

 colour: claws black: female with the ventral black 

 stripe much less conspicuous than the male. 



This bird is found throughout Europe, and is 

 said to have been found as far as the Cape of Good 

 Hope. Its nest is composed of moss, and lined 

 with hair; it is generally placed in the hole of a 

 wall or a tree : it lays from six to eight eggs, which 

 are white, spotted with rust-colour, so very like 

 those of the Nuthatch, that they can scarcely be 

 distinguished from them. They weigh about thirty 

 grains : the young when hatched leave the nest, but 

 remain in the immediate neighbourhood till the 

 ensuing spring, when they separate in pairs, and 

 establish a new colony: the young birds are said by 

 BufFon to fly when they are about fifteen days old j 

 although they cannot see for several days after 

 they are hatched : this species will build its nest 

 twice or thrice in a season, if the first nests have 

 been destroyed : it will also lay its eggs in a hole 

 of a rotten tree, without any appearance of a nest. 

 The common note of this bird is a sort of chatter, 

 but in the spring it assumes a greater variety, a 

 shrill whistle, and a very singular noise, somewhat 



