THE BLUE TITMOUSE. 



99 



Its food consists principally of insects, such as cater- 

 pillars, grubs, and ajphides, and it is doubtless a great bene- 

 factor to the gardener, although it has been accused of 

 destroying buds in its search for insects. 



It generally builds its nest in a hole in a wall, or in a 

 tree, using grass, moss, hair, and feathers in its construction, 

 and laying seven or eight eggs, which are white, spotted with 

 light red. Mr. Weir of Boghead, Linlithgowshire, observed 

 that a pair of Blue Titmice, on the 4th of July 1837, fed their 

 young 475 times in the course of seventeen hours — from a 

 quarter-past two o'clock in the morning until half-past 

 eight in the evening, and that they appeared to feed them 

 solely with caterpillars.^ 



1 Macgillivray, History of British Birds, vol. ii. p. 438. 



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