The Coal-Tit. 153 



chalky-white when blown, though semi-transparent and appearing delicate rose- 

 pink when fresh from the nest ; the surface is more or less sprinkled with pale- 

 red dots, which occasionally are collected into a mass at the larger end ; but, as 

 a rule the eggs of the Coal-Tit are not heavily marked. 



The young, as with the other Tits, are principally fed upon small caterpillars 

 and spiders ; of which vast quantities are destroyed during the rearing of a 

 family. Little does the fruit-grower imagine, when he slaughters this amiable 

 little bird, what a vast debt of gratitude he owes it, for the countless destructive 

 caterpillars which it has cleared off his trees and bushes. When adult, their food 

 consists of insects, their larvae, spiders, beech nuts,* seeds and buds : they are 

 also very fond of mutton suet, or the scraps of meat adhering to a well-cleaned 

 beef-bone. 



What is the love-song of the Coal-Tit ? According to some writers it is a 

 repetition of the call-note ; but, whilst lying awake in the early morning, I have 

 heard a Tit sing in the oak-tree in front of my house, which certainly was neither 

 a Great-Tit, nor a Blue-Tit; aud its song was — /t'^?, isoo-isoo, terry, as nearly as 

 I could make out at the time : I believe this to be the Coal-Tit's love-song, but 

 am not sure. The songs of birds, which were studied critically by the late Mr. 

 Charles A. Witchell, have, until recently, not received half the attention which 

 they deserve. 



The call of the young for food certainly bears no relation whatever to the 

 ordinary call-note or to the above song; in June, 1888, I heard of a nest of young 

 Tits in a cemetery in Kent, and visited it with Mr. Frohawk ; we caught the 

 mother bird on the nest and then took out nine young birds and a clear ^'g^- I 

 enclosed the entire family in a cage with the mother and gave her some wasp- 

 larvae to feed them with ; but, although Tits are very industrious and painstaking 

 in feeding their young when they have their liberty, I soon saw that it was 

 hopeless to expect anything of the kind in a cage ; the mother-bird simply 

 devoured all the maggots herself and trampled her babies underfoot in her frantic 

 efforts to escape : I, therefore, opened the cage-door at an open window and away 

 she flew without another thought as to the fate of her family. 



For a week, duriug which time I was able to attend to my Coal-Tits person- 

 ally, they throve splendidl}' ; but unhappily I had to return to work and leave 

 them in the care of a young girl who, in those days, used to come in daily and 

 attend to my birds ; the consequence was that these charming little things were 

 neglected, being allowed to get dirty ; so that gradually they dropped off, one or 



* I saw the Coal-Tit busj- upon these at St. Mary Cray, about the year iSgi or 1S92, wheu I was out fur 

 a country ramble iu that directiou. 



