276 
W. BICKERTON-NOTES ON BIRDS 
a nest of the species, containing six eggs, which was entirely 
suspended from nettle-stems just as a reed-warbler’s normally is 
suspended from reed-stems or twigs. 
Hedge-Sparrow (Accentor modularis). —Mr. F. He Ath sends 
a note with regard to two unusual nesting-sites of this species. 
One nest was built in an old watering-can thrown on a hedge 
near Boreham Wood, and the other was placed on a sprouting 
broccoli plant in the allotments there, being snugly built in the 
crown of the plant about 18 inches from the ground. Both 
broods safely hatched off. 
Gfreat Titmouse (Parus major ).—I am beginning to suspect 
that this bird is almost as great and as successful a mimic as 
the starling is, only that instead of flinging out his mimicry 
from the house-tops as the starling does, the great tit indulges 
his fancy more subtly and in more secluded situations. During 
the past year I suppose I was, on one occasion, intruding in the 
great tit’s “ preserve ”, for he began flinging out at me his usual 
well-known, harsh scolding notes. But sometimes before and 
sometimes after giving out his double scolding note he interjected 
a fine, clear, loud note of the song-thrush—“ phu-eet.” He only 
gave this note once at each utterance, and did not, as the song- 
thrush usually does, repeat it four or five times in quick succession. 
It was a note I had never heard before from the great tit, and it 
was a beautiful note though a borrowed one. It was additionally 
so because it had not the loudness of the thrush’s note; in fact 
it was one of the finest of the song-thrush’s notes, mellowed and 
softened down by the smaller “ pipe” upon which the great tit 
played it. Later on, I heard another remarkable song imitation 
from the same species. I was passing along the woodland path 
when, as I thought, a chaffinch gave out his “ spink, spink,” 
loudly and clearly a little distance away. I took no notice of 
this at first, being perfectly familiar with the note, and there 
being nothing unusual in its manner of delivery. (Letting a little 
nearer I happened to catch sight quite accidentally of my supposed 
chaffinch, and to my intense astonishment it was a great tit ! 
Even then I would scarcely have believed this to be the bird that 
had given out so clearly and so unmistakably the double call of 
the chaffinch, had I not stood by at close quarters and watched 
him while he repeated the performance. And the chaffinch 
himself, the rightful owner of the note, could not have done it 
better or more successfully. It was exactly the note—tone, 
quality, and loudness, all to the very “ life.” Only that now and 
again (as I came nearer) he could not refrain from indulging in 
his characteristic scolding notes in between, although he always 
allowed a reasonable interval to elapse between giving out his 
borrowed notes and his own. Quite apart, however, from the 
two instances here given, I believe that, as a whole, the tits have 
a wonderful vocabulary of call and alarm notes, if I may use 
such an expression, and that the great tit particularly excels in 
this direction. 
