BLUE TITMOUSE. 
153 
latter, to the number of sixteen ; in defiance of all these 
annoyances the female still kept possession of the hole, 
where I saw it repeatedly afterwards for several weeks, 
sitting upon the bare wood.” 
It will be seen, too, by these narratives that the Blue 
Titmouse is the most prolific of our birds. 
Until I had the authority which I have just quoted, I 
have always been accustomed to receive with jealousy 
and caution any of those reports in which some seem so 
much to delight, regarding the number of eggs laid by 
some of our smaller birds, never, in pretty extensive 
bird-nesting experience, having once met with the nest 
of any of our Insessorial birds containing more than 
eight eggs, and I think it most probable that when the 
eggs are more numerous, they are the produce of more 
than one bird; and this supposition is supported by the 
observations of Mr. Horsfall with regard to the long¬ 
tailed titmouse. 
The Blue Titmouse builds its nest of grass, moss, hair, 
and feathers; it is placed in the holes of trees and old 
walls, and small though the bird be, it is not easy sometimes 
to credit one’s sight, through how very small an aperture 
it can pass. The eggs are most frequently seven or eight, 
although at times amounting to the unusual number of 
sixteen. 
