70 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH INLAND BIRDS 
BLUE TITMOUSE. 
(Par us c^ruleus.') 
The name Tom-tit is most often applied to this 
species, though sometimes to all of the three pre- 
ceding as well. It is sometimes called the Bluecap, 
and Nun. — The Blue Tit is probably the best 
known of the family, and has all the Titmouse 
characteristics in the strongest possible degree. The 
blue markings on its head make it easily recognis- 
able in any company, and their brightness is further 
set off by its white cheeks and eye-stripes, and the 
yellow and yellowish-green of most of the rest of 
its plumage. It can partially erect the feathers of 
the head, much like the Goldcrest, though it has 
no such full and conspicuous crest as is possessed 
by the rare species next described. Like the Cole 
Tit, it is very fond of old orchards, where it climbs 
and swings among the lichen-covered branches with 
its sharp, self-assertive note, and often builds in 
holes in the apple-trees. It begins to nest in April, 
and is as little particular as the Great Tit in choos- 
ing a hole for the purpose, the most extraordinary 
situations suiting it as well as more normal crevices 
and cavities in a tree or a wall. The nest is a 
warm and plentiful bed of moss, wool, and hair, in 
the hollow of which it lays, as a rule, seven or 
