TUE PENDULINE TITMOUSE. 



20: 



PEMJDUNE TITMOUSE. 



having picked a hole in the skull, eat out the brain. They are very 

 prolific, laying eighteen or twenty eggs at a time. Their voice is, in 

 general, unpleasant. 



THE PENDULINE TITMOUSE, AND CAPE TITMOUSE. 



These birds are about four inches and a half in length. The fore 

 ])art of the head is whitish, and the hind 

 part and the neck are ash-colored. The 

 upper parts of the plumage are grey ; the 

 forehead is black; the throat and the front 

 of the neck are of a very pale ash-color; and 

 the rest of the under parts are yellowish. 

 The quills and tail are brown, edged with 

 white; and the legs are reddish gray. 



In the construction of their nests, the 

 Penduline or Bottle Titmice employ chiefly the light down of the wil- 

 low, the poplar, and the aspen; or of thistles, dandelions, and other 

 flowers. With their bill they entwine these filamentous substances, and 

 form a thick, close web, ahnost like cloth, this they fortify externally 

 with fibres and small roots, which penetrate into the texture, and in 

 some measure compose the basis of the nest. They line tlie inside 

 with down, but not woven, in order that their ofls))ring may lie soft. 

 They close the nest above, for the purpose of confining tlie warmth; 

 and they suspend it with hemp, nettles, &c., from the cleft of a small 

 pliant branch, (over some stream) th;it it may rock more gently, 

 assisted by the spring of the branch. In this situation the brood are 

 well supplied with insects, which constitute their chief food ; and 

 they are also thus protected from their enemies. The nest sometimes 

 resembles a bag, and sometimes a short purse. The aperture is made 

 in the side, is nearly round, not more than nn inch and a half iu 

 diameter, and commonly surrounded by a biim more or less protu- 

 berant. 



These nests are seen in great numbers in the fens of Bologna, and 

 tn those of Tuscnny, Lithuania, Poland, and Germany. The peasants 

 regard them with superstitious veneration : one of them is usually 

 puspenHed near the door of each cottage; and the ))ossessors esteem 

 it a defence against thunder, and its little architect is a sacred bird, 

 '''he penduline Titmice frequent watery places, for the sake, of aquatic 

 ) 'sects, on which they feed. 



The Cape Titmouse, constructs its nest of the down of a species of 

 asclepias. This luxurious nest is made of the 

 texture of flannel, and equals fleecy hosiery 

 in softness. Near the iq)per end projects a 

 small tube, about an incdi in length, with an 

 orifice about three-f)urths of an inch in 

 diameter. Immediately under the tube is a 

 small hole in the side, that has no communica- 

 tion with the interior of the nest; in thid 

 hole, the male sits at night, and thus both male 

 iHE CAPE TiTMousB ^^^d fcmalc apc screened from the weather 



