TITMICE AND THRUSHES. 13 
for description the three most generally known—viz., 
the Great Tit, the Blue Tit, and the Long-tailed Tit, 
—and treat them as representatives of the family. 
ALL three birds are alike in one respect, viz., that 
they can perch upon any object, provided that its 
surface be not perfectly smooth, and that they are 
able to assume almost any position. A titmouse, in 
fact, is quite indifferent whether it is perching like 
birds in general, hanging, head downwards, from 
a branch, or clinging at right angles to its foot- 
hold, carrying on its search for food in any attitude, 
and appearing to be equally at ease in all. All three, 
again, feed upon insects, and upon insects alone, 
save with few and occasional exceptions; as in the 
case of the Great Tit, which at times seems to find 
a certain monotony in that diet. 
His proceedings under such circumstances, how- 
ever, are by no means to be commended, for his 
usual plan is to attack some luckless comrade—and 
he is expert in the arts of war—slay it, split open its 
skull with his powerful beak, and feast upon its 
brains. The Rev. C. A. Johns mentions a case in 
which a great tit, placed for a night in a well-filled 
aviary, killed every one of his companions before the 
next day with the exception of a quail; and to this, 
when discovered, he was in the very act of dealing 
the fatal stroke. 
At times, also, the great tit is said to be in the 
habit of pecking holes in apples and pears, both ripe 
and unripe, as they hang upon the tree; and I have 
