326 THE GREATER TIT. 



The Greater Tit, or Ox-Eye Tit. 



(Parus Major.) Linn. 



" Hindrances, through which I struggled, not without distress, 

 And sometimes injury — like a bird that breaks 

 Through a strong net, and mounts upon the wing 

 Though with her plumes impaired." — Wordsioorth. 



This beautiful bird is about the size of the robin, and, like it. 

 pays a visit to our back courts in search of food during severe 

 winters, pecking the tissues off refuse bones or anything it can 

 find ; it draws to us in September, after the corn is cut. I saw 

 two in our garden on the 2 1st. It is a hardy bird — no mere 

 truant summer visitor, but a true native, and remains all year, 

 taking pot-luck with us. Its bill is comparatively longer and 

 stouter than the rest of the tits. Though not very common, it 

 is found in nearly all the woods and some of the gardens about 

 St Andrews. I have got their nests in garden walls and in 

 holes of trees. If there is no hole they will make one in a 

 decayed portion of a tree, which their strong bill enables them 

 to do. If the hole is large the nest is bulky, and loosely con- 

 structed with moss, old leaves, fibres of the tree, worsted, cotton 

 thread, bits of cloth, and hair of all kinds, cosily lined with 

 wool, fur, hair, and feathers ; eggs, from six to twelve, about the 

 size of a robin's, but whiter and dotted with red spots, like those 

 of the nuthatch. Macgillivray says they lay " about six eggs" — 

 a proof that he never got many of their nests, for in May 1884 

 I got two at Balmungo — one in the hole of a dyke with nine ; 

 the other in the hole of a tree, near the root, with twelve. 

 Selby says twenty, which is also incorrect. These nests were 

 composed with the usual materials, and lined with fur but no 

 wool. On June 12th I got a nest in the hole of a tree, near the 

 root, in Bonnytown Wood, with thirteen young ones — the most 

 in number I ever got, and quite enough to rear on the eggs and 

 larvae of insects. All the tits and wrens are prolific, as if meant 

 to play an important part in the wise economy of Nature. Like 

 all the rest the ox-eye is an active, lively bird ; but all the tits 

 are perfect harlequins — feathered mountebanks, cutting capers 

 on the trees — the one moment on the top of a branch, the next 



