ANOTHER TOMTIT'S NEST.
rTo THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—Singular as it is, I doubt whether Mr. Simcox Leafs, nest is so remarkable as one I have here. The striking-post of my entrance-gate consists of an iron column tapering upwards, solid for 20 in. from the base, but hollow thence to the top, with a rectangular opening 6 in. high by 1 in. wide,. beginning at 2 ft. 2 in. from the base, and used for the admis- sion of the bolt of the gate. The inside diameter of the hollow space within the column is about 2/ in„with the result that there exists a kind of cup 6 in. deep below the opening, the bottom of which cup is 8 in. or a little more under the bolt when shot. In this cup, for upwards of twenty years past, a pair of tomtits (how often the same pair is unascertainable) has- annually nested, and, except in one instance when a cat destroyed the sitting hen, the majority of the young tits have thriven and flown. The bolt is withdrawn and replaced with considerable noise at least thirty to forty times daily, but the parent birds wholly disregard both the motion and the noise. This year and now, we have, so far as they can be counted, seven young tits hatched out and likely to fly within a week ; but how these young birds or their predecessors contrive to reach the opening of escape, I have never been able to discover. Eight years ago, the annual addition of wool and hair made to the nest, and the accumulation of bones and debris of young birds which had died or failed to escape, had filled the hollow map to such a point, that there was risk of the bolt injuring the sitting hen, and I therefore cleaned it out ; whereupon, the following year, a pair of tits. recommenced from the bottom, and the process of filling it wp has again arrived so far that I have this morning been able to insert my finger into the months of the fledgelings, and must therefore, when they are gone, again clear out the cup.
—I am, Sir, &c. J. H. JAMES.
Kingswood, Watford, Herts., May 29.
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