968 TITMOUSE 



recognition at present being wholly subjective to the view taken 

 by the investigator of the group. Dr. Gadow (Cat. B. Br. Mus. 

 viii. pp. 3-53) in 1883 recognized forty-eight, besides several sub- 

 species, Avhile others have since been described.^ North-American 

 ornithologists include some fifteen as inhabitants of Canada and the 

 United States ; but scarcely two writers agree on this point, owing 

 to the existence of so many local forms. Of the species belonging 

 to the Indian and Ethiopian Faunas there is no space here to 

 treat, and for the same reason the presumably allied forms of 

 Australia and New Zealand must be left unnoticed. During the 

 greater part of the year the various species of the genus Pants 

 associate in family parties in a way that has been already described 

 (Migration, p. 554), and only break up into pairs at the beginning 

 of the breeding-season. The nests are nearly always placed in a 

 hollow stump, and consist of a mass of moss, feathers and hair, 

 the last being worked almost into a kind of felt. Thereon the 

 eggs, often to the number of eight or nine, are laid, and these have 

 a translucent white shell, freckled or spotted with rust-colour. 

 The first plumage of the young closely resembles that of the 

 parents ; but, so far as is known, it has always a yellower tinge, 

 very apparent on the parts, if there be such, which in the adult 

 are white. Few birds are more restless in disposition, and if 

 "irritability" be the test of high organization, as one systematist 

 asserts, the Paridai should stand very near the top of the list. 

 Most of the European species and some of the North-American 

 become familiar, haunting the neighbourhood of houses,- especially 

 in winter, and readily availing themselves of such scraps of food, 

 about the nature of which they are not particular, as they can get.^ 

 Akin to the genus Parus, but in many respects differing from 



^ Some of the most interesting, to the European ornithologist, of this genus, 

 as well as of Acred^da, presently to be mentioned, are figured by Mr. Dresser in 

 the Supplement to his Birds of Europ'e (pis. 655-661). 



^ By gardeners every Titmouse is generally regarded as an enemy, for it 

 is supposed to do infinite damage to the buds of fruit-trees and bushes ; but 

 the accusation is wholly false, for the buds destroyed are always found to be 

 those to which a grub— the bird's real object — has got access, so that there can 

 be little doubt that the Titmouse is a great benefactor to the horticulturist, 

 and hardly ever more so than when the careless spectator of its deeds is supposing 

 it to be bent on mischief. 



^ Persons fond of watching the habits of birds may with little trouble provide 

 a pleasing spectacle hy adopting the plan, practised by the late Mr. A. E. Knox, 

 of hanging a lump of suet or tallow by a short string to the end of a flexible rod 

 stuck aslant into the ground close to the window of a sitting-room. It is seldom 

 long before a Titmouse of some kind finds the dainty, and once found visits are 

 made to it until every morsel is picked otf. The attitudes of the birds as they 

 cling to the swinging lure are very diverting and none but a Titmouse can 

 succeed in keeping a foothold upon it. 



