The eggs are said to be occasionally sixteen or eighteen in
number, but not more than seven or eight are most usually
found. They are white, finely spotted or speckled with light
red, hut perhaps less so than those of any other British
species of Titmouse, and measure from ‘62 to '54 by from
•47 to ‘48 in.
When the Blue Titmouse has taken possession of a hole,
she is not easily induced to quit it, hut defends her nest and
eggs with great courage and pertinacity, puffing out her
feathers, hissing like a snake, and trying to repel the fingers
of the intruder in such a way as to gain for her among birds’-
nesting hoys in some parts the name of “ Billy B ite r” .*
The branch containing the nest may even be sawn off and
conveyed to a distance (a cruel experiment) without the
mother leaving it, and cases have been known in which, when
this has been done, she has still continued to sit on her eggs,
hatch them, and rear her brood. With equal persistence will
this species year after year use as a nursery the same hole,
and a remarkable instance of this kind is on record. In
1779, according to one account, in 1785, according to another,
it is said that a pair of these birds built their nest in a large
earthenware bottle which had been left to drain in the branches
of a tree in a garden at Oxbridge in the township of Hartburn,
near Stockton-on-Tees, and safely hatched their young. The
bottle having been allowed to remain in the same position by
the occupiers of the farm, then and still a family of the name
of Callender, was frequented, for the same purpose and with a
like result, until 1822, when, the tree becoming decayed, the
bottle was placed in one near by, and the tenancy continued
until 1851. In that year the occupiers of the farm omitted
drawing out the old nest, as had been their constant practice
before the breeding season, and in consequence the birds chose
another place; but in 1852, they returned to the bottle, and
have since annually built in it or in a second bottle, which has
lately been placed close by it, up to the present year, 1873.
with the exception of one season when a pair of the Great
Titmouse took possession of their inheritance. The intruders
* By some writers this name is given as “ Willow-hiter.”
were shot, and the tenancy it is hoped will not be again
disturbed.*
The general distribution of the Blue Titmouse in this
country is shewn by the fact that it breeds in every county
of Great Britain from Cornwall to Caithness. I t is said to
be the only species of Titmouse which has been noticed in
Orkney, and there only once, but Dr. Saxby includes it
among the birds of Shetland. I t is very common, more so
than any other of the genus, in Ireland. Its range in Nor--
way seems to be at present undecided, but Herr Collett, in
1871, found it breeding in lat. 64°, though it is scarce beyond
Trondhjem. In Sweden Prof. Sundevall says he has no
certain assurance of its occurrence further north than lat.
61°. In Finland it seems to be most commonly seen in
spring and autumn but its nest is only known to have been
once found. Herr Meves says that it is supposed to have
occurred near Archangel, but it does not appear to have been
recorded from any other locality in Northern Russia, and it
even migrates in winter from the western and southern parts,
while it is not found beyond the Ural. I t was observed by
Menetries at Lenkoran, and by Messrs. Dickson and Ross at
Erzeroom and Tortoone. De Filippi supposes that he noticed
it breeding at Kasvin, but the Blue Titmouse of southern
Persia has, from its duller colouring, been lately described
by Mr. Blanford as a distinct species under the name of
Pams persicus. Strickland procured it in Asia Minor. I t
does not seem to occur in Palestine nor in any of the islands
of the Egean, though it is more or less common in Turkey,
continental Greece and Crete. Thence it is found throughout
the remainder of Europe, and the more western islands of
the Mediterranean, being replaced however in North Africa
and the Canaries by the brighter-coloured P . teneriffce.
* The kindness of Mr. James Clephan enables the Editor to say that the
earliest published record of this nest was in the ‘Newcastle Courant ’ of May 1st,
1819, the date there assigned for the f rst tenancy of the bottle being 1785 ; but
Mr. Heavisides, who had resided in Stockton from 1814, gives it as 1779 (Ann.
Stockton, p. 189). Thanks to Canon Tristram, the later particulars were gathered
on the spot by the Editor. This case may be compared with that of the Falcons
before mentioned (page 58, note).
H i! I U.S. V I \ V . H