NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



119 



Every species of titmouse winters with us ; they have what I 

 call a kind of intermediate bill between the hard and the soft, 

 between the Linnsean genera of Fringilla and Motacilla. One 

 species alone spends its whole time in the woods and fields, never 

 retreating for succour in the severest seasons to houses and neigh- 

 bourhoods ; and that is the delicate long-tailed titmouse, which is 





LONG-TAILED TIT AND NEST. 



almost as minute as the golden-crowned wren ; but the blue tit- 

 mouse or nun (Parus cceruleus], the cole-mouse (Parus ater\ the 

 great black-headed titmouse (Fringillago), and the marsh titmouse 

 (Parus palustris), all resort at times to buildings, and in hard 

 weather particularly. The great titmouse, driven by stress of 

 weather, much frequents houses ; and, in deep snows, I have seen 

 this bird, while it hung with its back downwards (to my no small 

 delight and admiration), draw straws lengthwise from out the eaves 

 of thatched houses, in order to pull out the flies that were con- 



