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increases in numbers, but it is a somewhat delicate bird, and when 
the iron hand of the “ Frost King" binds the land fbr week after 
week in his impenetrable grasp, the Song Thrush, unable to procure 
its necessary food, dies in thousands. The bird is olive-brown above, 
with breast of cream-colour daintily spotted with black. The nest, 
built early in the year, is neatly plastered round inside with mud, 
thus forming for the eggs a warm protection from the biting blasts of 
early .spring.^ It is placed usually from four to five feet above the 
ground, within the sheltering cover of some evergreen bush, though 
occasionally placed upon the ground. The eggs, four or five in num- 
ber, are_ of a bright clear blue with tiny spots of black. The 
Thrush is celebrated in song, and worthily so, as one of the most 
exquisite of our bird musicians, its liquid note being in beauty equal 
to that of any of our songsters save possibly the nightingale alone. 
Titmouse, Blue— This little bird is widely distributed and com- 
mon everywhere. In habit, it appears to be possessed of an eternal 
resiles- ness, being ever on the move. In the winter months when 
branch and twig are bare, its movements may be easily observed. 
At that time of tbe year, it moves about in little companies, composed 
of numbers of its own species along with Redpolls, Gold-Crests, and 
sometimes Greater Tits, busily searching the boughs of the trees, in 
very odd attitudes (as often up.side down as not), for insects and their 
eggs concealed in the crevices of the bark. It also becomes 
very bold under the pressure of hunger, and often is to be seen in 
gardens, where much amusement may be derived from its antics, if 
a bone be suspended, within eye-.shot of the window. It will fearlessly 
alight thereon and peck vigorously, while any scrap of meat or gristle 
remains. The Blue Tit nests in a hole, preferably in a tree, but oft- 
times in a wall, where it frequently enters by a surprisingly small 
aperture. It is this bird which is the heroine of so many newspaper 
paragraphs, describing the nesting of a bird in a letter-box. Its eggs 
seven to nine in number, are white, speckled with dots of light 
reddish-brown. 
Titmouse, Long-tailed — This feathered mite is a resident with 
us, widely distributed, and in certain districts fairly common. As 
will be seen in tbe illustration it is possessed of a tail longer 
than its body, which is of a dull whitish-brown colour, slightly suffused 
with pale rose. It is indeed a charming sight, to see the little family, 
consisting of the two parent birds, with their six, eight, nine, or even 
ten young, flitting along from tree to tree as is their habit in the 
autumn months. Their tiny size combined with their length of tail 
renders them quite distinct from any of our other birds. _ The 
Long-tailed Tit builds what is unquestionably the most beautiful of 
British nests, an elongated structure of moss _ thickly covered with 
lichen, and felted together with cobwebs, with a small aperture 
beneath the upper end, and cosily lined with feathers. One patient 
observer took the trouble to count the number of feathers contained 
in one nest, to find the surprising number of over 2000. The eggs, 
usually ten or eleven in number, are extremely small, pure white, and 
spotted with tiny dots of light brown. With the exception of the 
Golden-Crested Wren, the egg of the Long-tailed Tit is the smallest 
laid by any of our British birds. The instinct is surely a marvellous 
one, which enables these feathered mites to feed without favour and 
in due turn the ten hungry tots contained in their cradle. 
Warbler, Sedge This tiny summer visitor is about the size of a 
sp.arrow and is fairly common in the marshes, or loch and riverside 
localities which it loves to frequent. It is of a lightish-brown colour, 
and may be identified by the distinct yellow streak above the eye. 
