BLUE TIT. 205 



times, each time bringing one caterpillar, at others two or 

 three, so that probably this one pair of birds destroyed six 

 or seven hundi^ed in the course of a single day. The destruction 

 of the Blue-cap by the farmer or gardener is an act of 

 economical suicide. Well has the author of the book of 

 Ecclesiasticus written, 'all things are double one against 

 another, and God has made nothing imperfect.' 



The 'Journal of a Naturalist' records the following: — 'I 

 was lately exceedingly pleased in witnessing the maternal care 

 and intelligence of this bird; for the poor thing had its young 

 ones in a hole of a wall, and the nest had been nearly all 

 drawn out of the crevice by the paw of a cat, and part of 

 its brood devoured. In revisiting its family, the bird discovered 

 a portion of it remaining, though wrapped up and hidden 

 in the tangled moss and feathers of their bed, and it then 

 drew the whole of the nest back into the place from whence 

 it had been taken, unrolled and resettled the remaining little 

 ones, fed them with the usual attentions, and finally succeeded 

 in rearing them. The parents of even this reduced family 

 laboured with great perseverance to supply its wants, one or 

 the other of them bringing a grub, caterpillar, or some insect, 

 at intervals of less than a minute through the day, and probably 

 in the earlier part of the morning more frequently; but if 

 we allow that they brought food to the hole every minute 

 for fourteen hours, and provided for their own wants also, it 

 vnll admit of perhaps a thousand grubs a day, for the re- 

 quirements of one, and that a diminished brood; and gives 

 us some comprehension of the infinite number requisite for 

 the summer nutriment of our soft-billed birds, and the great 

 distances gone over by such as have yoimg ones, in their 

 numerous trips from hedge to tree in the hours specified, 

 when they have full broods to support.' 



Meyer renders the note of the Blue Tomtit by the words 

 'zit, zit;' 'tzitzee,' and 'tsee, tsee, tsirr,' which is, I think, as 

 near as it can be approached; and shews that a comparison 

 of it by one of my schoolfellows to the words in the Latin 

 Grammar 'me te se, prajter que ne ve,' was far from being 

 inapt, as in truth it is not. Maegillivray gives us 'chica, 

 cliica, chee chee,' as also 'chirr-r-r.' It has also a sort of 

 scream — a signal of alarm, and the hen bird, when sitting on 

 the nest, hisses at any enemy, and spits like a kitten, rufiling 

 up her feathers at the same time. 'Many a young intruder,' 

 says Mr. Knapp, 'is deterred from prosecuting any farther 



