154 The Marsh-Tit. 



two in a da}', until all were gone. I was a good deal grieved to lose these 

 charming little birds; they were so lively and amusing. The moment that the lid 

 of the basket in which I kept them was lifted, all nine sprang on to the edge, 

 and standing in a row, shouted at their loudest — " Chutcha, chutchurr ; Chuicha, 

 chuickurr" incessantly, until the feeding was over ; then in a moment they scattered, 

 hopping in ever}- direction ; some were on my arm, some on my shoulder, others 

 on my head — and a nice little job it was to collect and restore them all to their 

 flannel nest in the basket. Sometimes my wife fed them, and if they did not keep 

 in a row, she used to push the rowdy ones back gently before feeding ; so that in 

 a day or so they quite understood and stood up exactly like a class of charity 

 children in uniform saying a lesson : it was a very pretty sight and I quite missed 

 the little things w-hen they died. Poor little mites! it would have been far better 

 to have left them in their parents' care ; but, I didn't know that at the time. 



Family— PARID.E. 



The Marsh-Tit. 



Par us fyalustris, LiNN. 



LOCAL as this resident Titmouse is in the British Isles, it is not uncommonly 

 captured in the autumn by the Bird-catchers; but, unfortunately these men 

 rarely take the trouble to bring them to Aviculturists; but either kill them, 

 or let them go, according to their nature ; some of the men who adopt this 

 method of adding to their earnings being really fond of birds and quite intelligent, 

 whilst others are mere savages. 



This species is distributed throughout Central, and the greater part of Western 

 Europe, down to the Pyrenees ; it is local in Spain, and rare in Southern Italy and 

 Greece. British specimens, on account of the .somewhat browner colouring of the 

 upper surface, as compared with those of the Conliucut, have received the varietal 



