TITMICE. Ill 



crows ; they have the same appetite for flesh, and the same custom 

 of tearing the food to pieces before they eat it. Though fierce, 

 they are social, seek out the company of their own species, and 

 form little flocks, more or less numerous ; and if any accident 

 should separate them, they call each other mutually, and are soon 

 reunited. They seek their food in common ; visit the clefts of 

 rocks and walls, and tear with their bills lichens or the moss of 

 trees, to find insects or their eggs. They also feed on seeds, but d-o 

 not break them like the bullfinches and linnets ; they place them 

 under their claws, and pierce them with their bills, like the nut- 

 hatches, with which they sometimes associate during the winter. 

 The type of this sub-family — 



_oi 





i'^ V- 



Fig. 58. — The Great Tit^wvsk {Parus viajor). 



The Great Tit {Panes major) is a handsome, vivacious little fellow, com- 

 mon in England, during the summer frequenting woods and shrubberies, and 

 in the winter resorting to gardens and orchards, clinging to the branches, and 

 searching diligently for the insects which, at that season of the year, are hidden 

 in the crevices of the bark. These birds feed much upon carrion, and will 

 even kill small birds by frequent strokes of their sharp hard bill upon the head 

 of the unfortunate victim, whose brains they afterwards pick out and devour. 

 The nest of the great tit is placed in a hole in a tree or wall, and is composed 

 of moss, hair, and feathers. The female lays usually from eight to ten eggs, 

 although occasionally sixteen or even eighteen have been found in one nest 



