68 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH INLAND BIRDS 
have more of a greenish-brown tinge ; but the 
head-markings are the unmistakable point of 
difference. The Cole Tit is fairly common in 
most parts of the country, though a little scarcer, 
as a rule, than its Great and Blue relations ; it 
seems particularly fond of old orchards and thickets 
of other old, gnarled, and lichened trees, such as 
ancient whitethorns. It builds in the latter part 
of April, in the usual Titmouse holes or fissures, 
either in trees or walls, or sometimes in a small 
animal's burrow in the ground. Moss is the chief 
material, with a good deal of wool, hair, or fur as 
well. Seven or eight eggs, sometimes ten or eleven, 
are laid, white, spotted and freckled with red in 
the usual Titmouse fashion. It is impossible to 
distinguish either nest or eggs with certainty from 
those of the Marsh and Blue Tits ; it is necessary 
to identify the parent bird. 
MARSH TITMOUSE. 
{Par us palustris,) 
The Marsh Tit is by no means confined to 
marshes or marshy ground, and is no more given 
than any other of the Tit family to mud-grubbing 
like a Snipe or a Moorhen, as the name might 
