58 BIRDS OF CHESHIRE. 
BLUE TITMOUSE. 
PARUS CHRULEUS, Linneeus. 
Tomtit, Tom Nowp, Billybiter. 
The Blue Titmouse is the best-known member of 
the family, and is abundant throughout the county. 
It is even more plentiful during the winter than in the 
summer months. In cold weather a bone or lump of 
suet suspended in a tree is an unfailing attraction to 
these active little birds. Other Tits avail themselves 
of this food—the Coal and Marsh taking their turn 
indiscriminately with the Blue,—but all give way if a 
Great Tit makes its appearance, and concede the first 
place to the more powerful bird. 
The number of insects destroyed by the Blue 
Titmouse in the breeding season is enormous. A pair 
at Alderley Edge, which were feeding their young in 
a hole in an apple-tree, visited the nest with food forty- 
three times in half an hour. 
In common with other species of the genus, the Blue 
Titmouse is a constant attendant in places where maize 
is scattered for Pheasants. In the coverts in Dunham 
Park we have watched the birds carry the maize, grain 
by grain, into the rhododendron bushes, where, holding 
it on a branch with one foot, they pecked out the soft 
part and dropped the remainder to the ground. 
FAMILY SITTIDA. 
NUTHATCH. 
Sirta casrA, Wolf. 
The Nuthatch, a very local resident, is practically 
confined to the south-west of the county. Dr. Dobie 
