GREATER TITMOUSE. 
171 
bation again resumed. The nest is built in an 
old tree, where the hole is sometimes excavated, 
and is almost always enlarged by the birds. Nor 
is publicity more avoided : we have known the 
nest of both this and the former placed in a 
window frame, and having for an entrance the 
opening by which the leaden hanging weights 
were introduced ; a mass of moss and warm 
materials are carried in, and from eight to ten or 
twelve eggs are laid, of a delicate white, spotted 
or slightly blotched with clear rufous red. The 
parents are equally pugnacious and bold when 
disturbed, the one flitting near and around with 
anxious cries, while the other is prepared to 
defend her charge within. 
This beautiful bird is one of the largest of the 
genus. The forehead, crown, throat, and a narrow 
band encircling the auriculars, deep glossy steel- 
bluish black. The black of the throat extends in 
a mesial line upon the breast, belly, and vent, 
expanding on the centre of the belly, and forming 
there a broad patch ; on these parts the colour 
wants the steel blue lustre of the head. The 
cheeks and auricular feathers are pure white, 
forming a triangular spot, very conspicuous from 
its contrast with the surrounding colour. The 
tips of the auriculars are sometimes slightly tipped 
with lemon yellow ; back of the neck and back 
olive green, of a paler and clearer tint on the 
nape, and becoming nearly white where it joins 
the black hood ; on the rump and tail coverts it 
shades into bluish gray ; the breast, belly, and 
