COLE TIT. 195 
at home. It is of an apparently restless disposition, movi 
like ‘Young Rapid,’ from place to place, from hedge to ro 
from tree to tree, from wood to wood, from district to on 
trict. It is addicted to woods, as supplying its food, but I 
have met with it in ordinary cultivated districts. It frequently 
seeks its food on the ground. 
It is more shy than the preceding species, or the Blue-cap. 
I copy the following life-like description of this interesting 
little bird and its associates from Mr. Macgillivray; its truth- 
fulness I can fully attest:—‘It is pleasant to follow a troop 
of these tiny creatures, as they search the tree tops, spreading 
all around, fluttermg and creeping along the branches, ever 
in motion, now clinging to a twig im an inverted position, 
now hovering over a tuft of leaves, picking in a crevice of 
the bark, searching all the branches, sometimes visiting the 
lowermost, and again winding among those at the very tops 
of the trees. In wandering among these woods you are at- 
tracted by their shrill cheeping notes, which they continually 
emit as they flutter among the branches; and few persons 
thus falling in with a flock, can help standing still to watch 
their motions for a while.’ I¢ is also observable how suddenly, 
without any apparent cause, the whole troop, as if under 
marching orders, flit in a body from the tree, and alight 
elsewhere, again to go through their exercises, evolutions, and 
manceuvres. 
Its flight is short and unsteady, produced by a continnal 
flutter. 
The food of the Cole Titmouse consists of insects, worms, 
caterpillars, and seeds. In search of the former it will pick 
with extreme rapidity all round in a circle, without so much 
as disturbing a single ‘sere and yellow leaf” though perched 
on the centre of its under side. It is said to be partic ularly 
fond of the berries of the woodbine, and to hold any hard 
seed with its feet against a branch, and peck at it till it 
obtains the kernel. In the winter it also feeds on wheat and 
oats, and appears to hoard up some portion of a superabundant 
supply of food against a day of scarcity. Occasionally it will 
pick a bone or other fragment with much zest. 
The note, which is first heard in February, is unmusical, 
and is rendered by Meyer, by the syllables ‘zit, zit, and ‘zit- 
tee;’ ‘che-chee, che-chee’ may also serve to express it. In the 
spring it is very loud, and may be heard nearly as far as 
that of the Oxeye—suspended for the most part until August, 
