THE TITMOUSE. 
233 
fixing it on the pin in which the handle worked. It hap- 
pened, that during the time of building and laying the eggs, 
the pump had not been in use ; when again set going, the 
female was sitting, and it was naturally supposed that the 
motion of the pump-handle would drive her away. The 
young brood, however, were hatched safely, without any 
other misfortune than 
the loss of a part of the 
tail of the sitting bird, 
which was rubbed off 
by the friction of the 
pump - handle. The 
opening for the pump- 
handle seems, indeed, 
to he a favourite spot, 
notwithstanding its 
danger, as we knew of 
another pair of Titmice, 
who, for several days, 
persevered in inserting, 
close upon the point of the handle, the materials for a nest, 
though, every time the handle was raised, they were either 
crushed or forced out, till the patience of the persevering 
little builders was fairly exhausted. 
Another pair of the same species established themselves in 
a still more singular, though certainly less frequented spot, 
neither more nor less than in the mouth of the skeleton of a 
man who had been hung in chains for murder. Another 
pair of a different species [Pams major), had wisely for- 
tified themselves in the centre of an old Magpie’s nest, where, 
surrounded by a - prickly defence of thorns, &c., they had 
built their little warm nest without fear of molestation. 
The interior of a skull, as well as the interior of a Magpie’s 
nest, were (however singular) at least better suited to the 
sedentary life of a bird when sitting on her eggs, than the 
noisy workshop of a brass-founder’s factory ; yet in such an 
unlooked-for place did a female Water- Wagtail once build 
her nest, within a foot of the wheel of a lathe, in the midst 
G-reater Titmouse, 
