NUTHATCH — TITMICE. 71 



seeds and oats, on which they feed in winter. The Nuthatch 

 also breeds in Christ Church Meadow^ and in the gardens of 

 St. John^s CoUeg-e, Oxford. A suitable hole, when found, is 

 resorted to year after year. A clutch of eg-gs was taken in 

 May, 1886, from a hole in a tall elm, into which I had seen 

 the old birds carrying materials, from which I had eggs more 

 than a dozen years previously. I have known the Nuthatch 

 dispossessed of its chosen breeding-hole by Starlings, In 

 autumn and winter it wanders from its summer haunts for 

 food, entering gardens, and being often seen feeding on the 

 roofs of thatched buildings and on the ground, but it is seldom 

 found far from trees. The Rev. H. A. Macpherson writes, 

 ' In October, 1877, an example flew into the house of Bryant 

 the bird-catcher at New Hinksey, through a space of six inches ; 

 not only was it curious that it should select a fowler^s house, 

 but there were no trees near, and the house was one of a row 

 in a double street ' [MS. notes). 



THE GREAT TITMOUSE, 



Parus major. 

 The Great Titmouse is a common resident. Its ever 

 welcome spring note falls pleasingly on the ear, as one of the 

 earliest sounds of the opening year, in the first mild days of 

 January. 



THE BLUE TITMOUSE. ^^(^ 



Parus cceruleus. 

 The Blue Titmouse is resident, and the most abundant of 

 the genus. 



THE COAL TITMOUSE. 



Parus ater. 

 The Coal Titmouse is resident and tolerably abundant. In 

 common with the species next to be treated of it affects a 

 vegetable diet to a considerable extent, and is especially fond 

 of the seeds of the sunflower. 



