colour.

* * * * *

THE MARSH TITMOUSE.

I have been much interested this spring at witnessing in two or
three instances the tenacity with which the Marsh Titmouse sits on
its nest. Being in a wood near my own house, I perceived a pair of
these birds in one of the trees, and having seen them in the same
place several times before, and being desirous of finding the
nest, I sat down to watch their motions. After examining me on all
sides with much chattering and many gesticulations, indicative of
dislike and suspicion, the female flew to the root of a tree,
three or four yards off, and disappeared, as she had gone to the
opposite side of the tree to that on which I sat; and as there
were several holes about the root I was at a loss to know in which
the nest was built, and began to strike the root with a stick,
expecting her to fly out, but nothing appeared. I then examined
the holes one by one, and whilst doing so heard her hissing and
puffing from within, in such a way that if I had not known she was
there I should have thought it was a snake rather than a bird.
However, as she would not come out, and the hole was so small that
I could not get my hand in, I was obliged to raise the siege until
next morning, when I returned armed with a hammer and chisel with
which to storm her citadel. As the wood was sound, the hole small,
and the nest six or eight inches within the tree, I was five or
ten minutes before I could get to it, during which I gave her
repeated opportunities of escaping if she chose; but she still sat
on her nest, puffing and pecking at the stick that I thrust in in
order to drive her off. She at last crept to the further edge of
the nest, which I then took out, as I wanted it for one of my
friends who is a collector of eggs, but on attempting to blow one
I found they had been sat upon too long, and I then felt desirous
of seeing whether the old bird would hatch them after having her
nest torn from under her, and I turned back to the tree whence I
had taken them, and found her still sitting in the hole where I
had left her. I regret to add that the humane part of my
experiment did not succeed, for although she remained after I had
returned the nest to its place, she left it immediately after, and
did not return to it again.

Another instance which I witnessed was in a nest containing young
ones. This was also at the root of a tree, but the situation did
not appear to be so well chosen as is usually the