THE BLUE TIT. 
133 
for three years in succession, filling up more than half the 
box with moss, regardless of the letters which were posted 
every day, and dropped on to the back of the sitting bird. The 
latter never moved when the box was opened to take out the 
letters. Another favourite breeding place of the Great Tit is 
the inside of a large flower-pot or the stand of a statue in a 
garden. Both these situations demand a great deal of labour 
m filling up the inside to the required height, and we have 
known one instance where the hollow pedestal of a statue in 
the pleasure-grounds of Sir Edward Shelley’s seat at Avingtmi 
was selected. Inside this pedestal the birds had filled up the 
base with moss to the extent of nearly a foot, and had excavated 
more than one nest. There were only two young ones in one 
of the nests. A few years ago a second instance of multiple 
nests of the Great Tit came under our notice, when a pair 
occupied a large flower-pot. This pot, with the base filled up 
with moss, and its three nests, is now in the British Room at 
the British Museum. Mr. Dallen, who foun .1 the nest, declared 
that there were eggs in all three of the cups, but we fancy that 
they must have been placed there by someone who had ex- 
amined the nest, and not by the birds themselves, especially as 
there is every appearance of the three nests having been used in 
successive years. There is, therefore, some method in the mad- 
ness ol these little birds, for, when once the wide base of the 
jower-pot has been filled with moss, there is always a foun- 
tition in which to sink another nest in the following year. 
tn E ff S ' Fr ° m five to n * ne * n number, sometimes, according 
Mr. Seebohm, as many as eleven being laid. Ground- 
otour white or creamy-white, with numerous red spots and 
line underlying grey spots. As a rule the rufous spots and 
s ar e universally distributed over the egg, but occasionally 
J'm a ring round the larger end. The variation in intensity 
t - me rufous colour is very marked in a series, but, as a rule, 
‘ e Sgs m the same clutch are all similar. Axis, o - 7 c inch • 
diam., 0 '6. ’ ‘ 0 ’ 
THE BLUE TIT. PARUS CjERULEUS. 
(Plate XV.) 
Pams cceruleus , Linn., S. N., i., p. 341 (1760); Macg., Br. B., 
u '> P- 43 1 ( l8 39)i Dresser, B. Eur., iii., p. i 3X) pi. II3) 
