The King of the Tits 



"Birds in a Garden." He found that old birds 

 of this species were glad of help when bringing 

 up a brood, finding, when the grown young were 

 still clamouring for food, that a piece of nut would 

 stop their mouths for some time ; since, though 

 lazily expecting food to be put into their bills, 

 they knew quite enough to hold a big piece down 

 with their feet and chip at it with their bills in 

 orthodox tit fashion. It is, indeed, very char- 

 acteristic of the tits to swallow their food in small 

 morsels, in a manner very unlike the greedy haste 

 with which most insectivorous birds bolt it in 

 large pieces. Herein, as well as in their habit of 

 holding things under their feet, they much re- 

 semble their relatives, the crows ; for every one 

 must have noticed the mincing, finicking way in 

 which birds of the crow tribe feed when they have 

 time, though they will pouch big pieces for future 

 discussion when pressed at the moment. 



The great tit is, indeed, a jay in miniature, and 

 as some foreign jays are not much bigger than 

 blackbirds, and the splendid black and yellow 

 Sultan-tit of the Himalayas [Parus sultanetts) is 

 nearly as large as a thrush, even the size does not 

 make much distinction between the two groups. 

 Most tits, however, differ very markedly from 

 most crows in their habit of building in holes ; 

 and the great tit in particular is most accom- 

 modating in his ideas of what constitutes a suit- 



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