148 
THE NATURALISTS’ JOURNAL. 
lays its diminutive eggs. It is to be observed about Cambridge 
and the fen districts chiefly in autumn and winter, having a pre¬ 
ference for gardens and parks, where fir and yew trees are grown 
for ornament. I have never seen any noteworthy varieties in the 
plumage of the birds, but have had very light coloured or white 
eggs, almost spotless. The fire-crest (. Regulus ignicapillus ) is an 
occasional visitor, but I have never found its nest. 
The wren (Troglodytes europoeus) is common everywhere, 
especially in gardens. I have known instances of it nesting in 
the winter. 
PARID/E. 
The bearded titmouse ( Panurus biarmicus ) is now a scarce 
bird with us, but I have seen it in the reeds at Wicken, and Mr. 
William Howlett wrote me that he saw a pair at Newmarket, May 
28th, 1893. The long-tailed tit ( Acredula caudata ), breeds in the 
wooded part of the country, and sometimes spotless eggs occur. 
The great tit ( Parus major ) is common in gardens and orchards, 
and resides with us all the year. I have seen one or more very 
light coloured individuals, in which the usual black of the crown 
of the head and throat has become a sort of bluish or ashy-grev, 
and the olive-green back inclined to greenish yellow. The eggs 
I have found vary in the number of spots, as well as in their 
extent, pure white unspotted ones have been occasionally met 
with. The coal tit {Parus ate?') nests in the county, but is 
more frequently seen in the winter. The marsh tit (Parus palus- 
tris) is not scarce in the fenland in the winter, and, with the 
other tits, comes round the farm houses. Many in the breeding 
season retire to the more wooded parts of the country, but some 
remain to nest in the fen districts. 
The blue tit {Parus cceruleus) is, as elsewdiere, a very common 
bird in Cambridgeshire. The boys call it “ Titty Bluecap.” 
Like the other tits, it is a perfect bird acrobat, and it is most 
amusing to watch its performances among the leafless twigs in 
the winter; now turning a somersault, then hanging head down¬ 
wards, as if on a trapeze, then dropping from twig to twig, and 
catching the lower one in its descent, with a perfectly nonchalant 
air; ever on the move, peering into all the crannies of the bark, 
or examining the buds and profoundly indifferent as to w r hich 
end of it is uppermost. It nests in all sorts of situations, under 
inverted flow r er pots, and in anything hollow r , and like the great 
tit will sometimes appropriate other bird’s nests. The eggs vary 
a good deal in the number and size of the dots, which sometime s 
coalesce and are occasionally yellowish browm instead of red, 
on the other hand, the dots have been in some examples very 
faint, and hardly perceptible, and the ground colour pure white 
instead of pinkish white. 
The nuthatch {Sitta ccesia) is in the number of the birds w’hich 
