THE HUDSON'S BAY TITMOUSE. 185 



In the summer time, the Chick-a-dee's labors are more 

 easily noticed ; and as he raises a large brood of young, the 

 female laying six or eight eggs at a litter, he is very busy 

 through the whole day in capturing vast quantities of cater- 

 pillars, flies, and grubs. It has been calculated that a single 

 pair of these birds destroy, on the average, not less than five 

 hundred of these pests daily ; a labor which could hardly be 

 surpassed by a man, even if he gave his whole time to the 

 task. 



" Moreover, the man could not be as successful at so 

 small a cost ; for, setting aside the value of his time and 

 the amount of a laborer's daily wages, he could not reach the 

 denser and loftier twigs on which the caterpillars revel, and 

 which the Titmouse can traverse with perfect ease. No 

 man can investigate a tree, and clear it of the insect hosts 

 that constantly beleaguer it, without doing some damage to 

 the buds and young leaves by his rough handling ; whereas 

 the Chick-a-dee trips along the branches, peeps under every 

 leaf, swings himself round upon his perch, spies out 

 every insect, and secures it with a peck so rapid that it is 

 hardly perceptible." 



In some observations made on the habits of this and 

 some other birds in Paris, it was found that the Titmouse 

 destroys, at the lowest computation, over two hundred 

 thousand eggs alone of noxious insects in the course of a 

 year. That one small bird is thus able to accomplish so 

 much good in destroying these myriads of vermin is an 

 appeal to the good sense of the farmer, for the protection of 

 the whole class, that should not be slighted. 



PARUS HUDSONICUS. Farster. 

 The Hudson's Bay Titmouse. 



Parus Hudsonicus, Forster. Philos. Trans., LXTI. (1772) 383, 430. Aud. Orn. 

 Biog., II. (1834) 543. Ib., Birds Amer., II. (1841) 155. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Above yellowish olivaceous-brown ; top of head purer brown, not very different 

 in tint; chin and throat dark sooty-brown; sides of head white; beneath white; 



