PARIM. 
212 
lichen however, was not used in the construction of the nest, 
this being chiefly composed of Parmelia (P. saxatilis, Sfc.), 
through which Ilypna and the egg-nests of spiders were delicately 
interwoven : the interior was lined with a profusion of soft moss 
and feathers. 
A note of May 13, 1832, describes, as an amusing sight, a 
pair of these birds, seen feeding seven young ones, that having 
left the nest, were clustered together on the branch of a tree, within 
the space of about six inches. The manner in which a family of 
long-tailed titmice crowd together for warmth during snow, and in 
the cold wintry night, has been well described ; (see Habits of 
Birds, p. 60, and note to p. 171 of White's Selborne, ed. 1837,) 
but that it is the ordinary habit of the species, and not consequent 
on the piercing breath of winter, is indicated in the following 
note, dated, July the 5th, 1833. “Mr. Wm. Sinclaire remarks, 
that some days ago, he was much entertained by observing a family 
of about ten or twelve long-tailed titmice going to roost in com- 
pany, when each individual endeavoured to get as near the middle 
of the group as possible, and that enviable situation was no sooner 
attained by a few, than those from the outskirts used all their 
efforts to insinuate themselves towards the centre, and foiled in this, 
next exerted their powers to avoid being placed outside — in all 
respects just the winter practice." A similar proceeding on the 
part of the gold-crested regulus is described by Mr. Herbert, in a 
note to White's Selborne (p. 180, ed. 1837). So many as 
twenty long-tailed titmice have been seen in company about 
Belfast. 
The stomachs of four of these birds killed in January and 
March, were, (with the exception of two seeds in one of them,) 
entirely filled with insects, among which the remains of minute 
coleoptera were in every instance discernible. 
M. Temminck describes the female only as having the black 
•streak' over the eyes ; Mr. J enyns considers it common to both 
sexes : in nine specimens of P. caudatus now before me, this 
marking is apparent, but in some individuals is much better de- 
fined than in others ; in one only of them the sex was observed. 
