108 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
a kind of intermediate bill between the hard and the soft, between 
the Linnean genera of /ringilla and Motacilla. One species 
alone spends its whole time in the woods and fields, never retreat- 
ing for succour in the severest seasons to houses and neighbour- 
hoods; and that is the delicate long-tailed titmouse, which is 
almost as minute as the golden-crowned wren; but the blue 
titmouse or nun (Parus ceruleus), the cole-mouse (Parus ater), 
the great black-headed titmouse (/7zzgz//ago), and the marsh 
titmouse (Pavus palustris), all resort at times to buildings, and in 
hard weather particularly. The great titmouse, driven by stress of 
weather, much frequents houses ; and, in deep snows, I have seen 
this bird, while it hung with its back downwards (to my no small 
delight and admiration), draw straws lengthwise from out the eaves 
of thatched houses, in order to pull out the flies that were con- 
cealed between them, and that in such numbers that they quite 
defaced the thatch, and gave it a ragged appearance. 
The blue titmouse, or nun, is a great frequenter of houses, and a 
general devourer. Besides insects, it is very fond of flesh ; for it 
frequently picks bones on dunghills : it is a vast admirer of suet, 
and haunts butchers’ shops. When a boy, I have known twenty 
in a morning caught with snap mouse-traps, baited with tallow or 
suet. It will also pick holes in apples left on the ground, and be 
well entertained with the seeds on the head of a sunflower. The 
blue, marsh, and great titmice will, in very severe weather, carry 
away barley and oat-straws from the sides of ricks. 
How the wheat-ear and whin-chat support themselves in winter 
cannot be so easily ascertained, since they spend their time on 
wild heaths and warrens ; the former especially, where there are 
stone quarries : most probably it is that their maintenance arises 
from the aureliz of the Lepidoptera ordo, which furnish them with 
a plentiful table in the wilderness. * ‘ 
Iam, &c. 
* See Letter XXXIX., and note. 
