BLUE TITMOUSE. 143 



and little stout beak are searching every cranny for insect 

 food? Clinging to the walls in our gardens he digs out 

 the larvae from their holes and corners, and when he does 

 scatter the blossoms from the fruit trees a stiU greater 

 evil has been lurking at the base of the bud. Surely, 

 then none, but the surliest old gardener, would grudge 

 him a taste of the fruit or other dainties he has so 

 well helped to preserve, or look otherwise than leniently 

 on such peccadilloes, and even the most obstinate of that 

 opinionated race need but dissect the next victim of 

 his folly to know that he has killed a friend."^ In winter, 

 when his more natural food runs scarce, hardly anything 

 comes amiss, and many a time has he afforded me a 

 fund of amusement, when picking a bone, specially fixed 

 to a stake in the garden for his and my gratification. 

 How he raises his little crest, and flutters his wings, 

 when he first discovers the tempting feast, now hovering 

 around or clinging to the sides, as some scrap of meat 

 comes handy to his bill, or perched for an instant on the 

 broken shank, he makes one laugh outright at his 

 comical expression, as with head on one side, he seems 

 to speculate on the chances of reaching the marrow 

 still remaining in the shaft. In one very severe winter, 

 when many of our resident birds were completely 

 starved, I remember seeing a pair of blue tits following 

 a cart-load of turnips along the road, settling upon and 



* Macgillivray, on the authority of that most patient and 

 accurate observer, Mr. Weir, shows that a pair which were closely 

 watched from half-past three o'clock of a July morning, tUl half- 

 past eight in the evening, fed their young for nearly 17 hours 

 incessantly, returning to the nest with food 475 times ; and at 

 certain periods during the day they fed them from 20 to 46 

 times in an hour. " They appeared to feed them solely on cater- 

 pillars ; sometimes they brought in a single large one ; and at 

 other times two or three small ones. It is therefore impossible to 

 say how many had been carried in by them during the day." 



