NESTS AND EGGS. 
would we have suffered them to remain, had they not kept tfie 
water in a continually muddy state hy the materials they used. 
After their expulsion from the well, which was not very easily 
effected, they made choice of a hole in an old wall at the hack of 
the house. One day, when passing the place,” he says, “ atten- 
tion was attracted hy a loud hissing, somewhat like that emitted 
hy a cat, an adder, or a weasel. On looking at the little crevice 
in the wall, I soon discovered whence the sound proceeded ; there 
sat the agitated Tom, employing this vociferous method of 
ridding himself of my presence. The nest was composed first of 
a layer of mixed moss, grass, and wool, with a lining of hair 
and feathers. The eggs (fig. 7) were very numerous, hut I 
did not count them — some authors say as many as twenty, 
of a regular oval form, five- eighths of an inch long, and half 
an inch thick, white, slightly tinged with red, and marked with 
irregular spots of darker red. When a family made its appear- 
ance in this dwelling, the parent birds were so anxious in 
supplying the wants of their little ones, that I have frequently 
stood so near, as the birds entered and left; the nest, that I 
might have caught them hy stretching out my hand. In the 
following year they again attempted to build in the well, re- 
newing their efforts for four successive years.” 
All the tits are, more or less, birds of a social habit, the ox- 
tit being the most retiring, as it is the largest; the ox-tit 
mixing freely, not only with its own species, but with the blue- 
tit and cole-tit. A cole-tit’s nest sent to Dr. Robertson from 
Perthshire is thus described in a note from that gentleman : — 
“It is rather loosely constructed, and of considerable size, 
measuring internally two inches and a quarter, externally four 
and a quarter. The outer part is composed of chips of decayed 
wood, small larch-twigs, fibres of various plants, and moss, then 
a thick layer of finer moss and fibre ; the inner layers are more 
compact, and formed of fibres intermixed internally with downy 
feathers, the fibre being the softer part of the bark of trees, 
and of the stems and leaves of herbaceous plants. The eggs 
(fig. 8), six or eight in number, four- sixths of an inch long, 
and three- sixths thick, white, thickly dotted with light red 
spots at the larger end, a few similar spots being scattered 
over the other parts. The nest is usually constructed in the 
hollow bole of some tree, or in the crevice of an old wall.” 
But the most singular of this family is the Bottle -tit, or 
long-tailed mufflin, poke-pudding, or mum-tuffin, and long- 
tailed mag, to all of which names it hails in different localities. 
310 
