CHAPTER XXII 



TWO MORE TITMICE— THE GREAT TITMOUSE AND 

 THE COAL-TITMOUSE 



I HAVE rarely seen either of these birds in the Broadlands, 

 and from inquiries I find they are by no means common. 

 The great titmouse is locally called the "Bee-bird," from 

 its habit of eating bees in spring and autumn, when they 

 are somnolent and there is little other insect food. I know 

 of one of these hatching off six young in a hollow tree, the 

 nest being a yard below the hole in the tree, and therefore 

 not to be reached by the grasping urchin. These six 

 nestlings were fed upon flies and moths that were captured 

 in the ivy growing round an old elm. When the old hen 

 was sitting, if you approached the nest she hissed "like 

 a wiper," as the old fenman in whose cottage she built 

 expressed it. An old mole-catcher told me they are some- 

 times called " saw-sharpeners " in the building season, from 

 the well-known and peculiar grating noise made by the 

 cock. 



The " coal-titimouse," as the coal-tit is locally called, 

 is seen about the reeds now and then, or more rarely 

 amongst the alders ; but I have never found his nest in 

 this district, though it cannot be unknown, for the birds, 

 though not common, are by no means rare, although all 

 one sees of these two pied tits is a flash across the land- 

 scape or a glance from a reed-bed — a mere glimpse here 

 and there, of which the memory alone is left. 



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