PARUS CCERULEUS. 331 



to eight, twenty times (raining heavily this hour) ; eight to nine, thirty-six 

 times ; nine to ten, forty-six times ; ten to eleven, thirty-seven time* ; 

 eleven to twelve, thirty-nine times ; twelve to one, twenty-four times ;, one 

 to two, twenty-three times ; two to three, thirty-four times ; three to four, 

 eighteen times; four to five, twenty-nine times; five to six, twenty-five 

 times ; six to seven, twenty times ; and from seven to half-past eight, 

 twenty-five times, when they stopped, having been engaged almost 

 incessantly for seventeen hours in their labour of love, after feeding their 

 young 4-75 times, which was astonishing, as they flew to a plantation more 

 than 150 yards away from their nest. They appear to feed them solely with 

 caterpillars ; sometimes they brought a single large one, at other times two 

 or three small ones." 



So here is proof positive of the vast number of caterpillars 

 destroyed annually by the tits, and a good illustration of 

 Shakespeare's expression—" The labour we delight in physics 

 pain." But in winter when there are no caterpillars they must 

 just live on what they can get ; and as a proof of their love of 

 flesh and suet, on the morning of December 12th, 1882, during 

 a severe snow-storm, one flew into a butcher's shop near where 

 I live ; hopping on the stools and tables it feed itself, then flew 

 away ; it returned on the 13th, 14th, and 15th, till it grew so 

 tame as allowed itself to be caught and taken to the back shop 

 or business-room, where it made itself quite at home, perched on 

 the gasalier and gas-brackets, and enjoyed its winter quarters 

 until spring and the green leaves returned, when the joys of love 

 and the cares of a family impelled it to retire to the woods and 

 feed on caterpillars again. The colours of this lively little bird 

 are — forehead, cheeks, and a band above the eyes, white ; crown 

 of the head, berlin-blue ; streak before and behind the eyes, 

 black ; nape of the neck and collar, deep azure-blue ; back, 

 greyish-blue, with a tinge of green ; wings, pale berlin-blue, the 

 greater coverts tipped with white ; tail, pale blue ; throat and 

 middle of the belly, deep blue ; breast and sides, pale yellow ; 

 bill and legs, bluish-grey ; iris, brown. The female similar 

 except the blue down the belly not so well defined. Length of 

 male 4| by 7 f inches ; female, as usual with all small birds, a 

 little less. Mr Bowdler Sharpe, of the Zoological Department 

 of the British Museum, says — " The blue tit is one of the few 

 birds peculiar to the British Islands, which was overlooked by 

 naturalists till he pointed it out. It is quite different from the 

 blue tit of the Continent, which has a pure white head — both 

 male and female. All our resident birds are more or less 

 different from those on the Continent, not only in plumage but 

 in habits, caused by our moist climate." As to this I cannot 

 speak with certainty, but think it worth while to introduce here. 



