Titmice. . 1 03 



her nest and young against all assailants, puffing out 

 her leathers, and hissing like an angry kitten. One of 

 this Tit's provincial names is the Billy Biter, from the 

 use it often makes of its strong beak. It is also known 

 as Tom Tit, Bluecap, Blue Bonnet, and Nun. It builds 

 in strange places sometimes in the hat of a scarecrow, 

 the cylinder of a pump, a bee-hive, under a turned-up 

 flower-pot, flying in and out at the hole, etc. The Tom 

 Tit soon becomes tame in captivity, and may be treated 

 like the Greater Tit. It is very fond of bathing. If 

 kept in a cage, it should be in a spacious one, with very 

 close wires or covered with netting. Of late, very 

 pretty cages have been designed specially for Titmice, 

 with wooden backs and sides, lined with virgin cork, 

 and a hollow tree in the centre of the cage, formed of 

 pieces of the cork. The birds look extremely pretty, 

 popping in and out of the holes ; but I am afraid it 

 would be a matter of difficulty to keep such a cage 

 clean, and I have been told that the cork harbours 

 insects. A pleasanter plan for seeing these birds to 

 advantage has been adopted by a lady, who has kept 

 a small basket outside her dining-room window, filled 

 with beef or mutton fat, uncooked, for the last four or 

 five winters. The Greater Tit, the Cole Tit, and the 

 Blue Tit come to this in numbers, and look very pretty 

 clinging to the handle and sides of the basket. She 

 put a cocoa husk prepared for birds to build in, above 

 the basket one spring, and furnished it with tow and 



