92 THE GREAT TITMOUSE. 



It is a sprightly bird, and is always in motion, flitting 

 about amongst the branches of trees and bushes, and 

 searching the bark, buds, and twigs for insect food. While 

 thus engaged it assumes a great variety of interesting atti- 

 tudes, and may be sometimes seen clinging to a twig back 

 downwards. 



About Cockburnspath it goes under the name of the 

 " Bee-Eater" and is said to be a great enemy to bee-hives in 

 that neighbourhood, where it suddenly descends from the 

 trees which surround the village gardens, and seizes the 

 bees as they issue from the hives.^ This habit has also 

 been noticed in the village of Paxton, when snow is on the 

 ground and the bees are tempted to leave the hives by 

 bright sunshine.^ 



The cheery and oft-repeated spring notes of this bird 

 are generally heard about the beginning of March for the 

 first time in the season, and are continued until about the 

 middle of May. They may be said to resemble the words 

 " Tee-ta, tee-ta, tee-ta," and in some places are likened to 

 the sound produced by the sharpening of a saw. 



The nest, which is usually placed in the hole of a tree 

 and sometimes of a wall, is composed of moss and feathers, 

 with some hair. The eggs are from six to nine in number, 

 and are white, spotted with light red. 



1 Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. vii. p. 295 ; also vol. x. p. 563. 



- My friend Mr. Ingram, of Belvoir Castle Gardens, informs me that during 

 the severe snow-storm of 1886 several bright sunny days occurred, which induced 

 his bees to come out of their hives, when they were immediately attacked by 

 Great Tits, and many of them destroyed. He was so much annoyed at this 

 destruction that he set some small steel traps baited with dead bees near the 

 hives, and in the course of two days caught. fifteen of the depredators. 



