i o 2 Bird-keeping. 



The BLUE TIT or TOM TIT (Parus cceruleus] is one 

 of our most common birds, and is exceedingly amusing, 

 tripping over the branches, and looking more like a 

 blue mouse than a bird, running so swiftly about among 

 the twigs. It is a very voracious little creature, and 

 devours an immense number of insects ; but as it often 

 bites off the buds of fruit-trees in which a maggot is 

 concealed, it is unjustly suspected of injuring them, 

 whereas it does good service in ridding the tree of future 

 depredators. The Blue Tit will eat eggs and any kind 

 of meat and carrion, and is very fond of fat; peas, 

 oats, and other grain too will not come amiss to him. 

 He is a most pugnacious little bird, and is continually 

 at war with his own species, and ought never to be kept 

 in a cage with other birds, for if he cannot injure them 

 as severely as the Greater Titmouse does, he is quite 

 as quarrelsome and mischievous, and is continually 

 teasing his companions, hanging round their necks 

 when they are eating any titbit to which he may take 

 a fancy, and forcing them to drop it, or pulling their 

 feathers out. Mr. Thompson tells of a Blue Tit con- 

 fined in a cage covered with close netting, which it 

 several times cut through, and escaped into the room. 

 It would fiy to the children, and seize upon a piece of 

 cake or bread that any of them had in its hand, per- 

 secuting the youngest child so much for a piece of 

 apple one day, that she ran crying out of the room. 

 The female Blue Tit is exceedingly brave in defending 



