THE GEEAT TIT. H7 



engage a chrysalis from its cocoon are very entertaining. 

 One scarcely knows which most to admire, the tenacity of 

 its grasp, the activity with which it turns its head and 

 body, or the earnestness and determination with which it 

 clears away every obstacle until it has secured the prize. 

 It does not, however, limit its food to insects ; it is accused 

 of feeding occasionally on the buds of fruit-trees, but it is 

 doubtful whether the bird has any other object in attack- 

 ing these, than that of hunting out the insects that infest 

 them. It is said also to be very fond of nuts, which it 

 sticks into crevices in the bark of trees, and cracks by 

 repeated blows of its beak. Whether it has this power, 

 I do not know ; but that it will eat nuts of every kind, it 

 is easy to prove by fastening the kernels of filberts or 

 walnuts to the trunks of trees by means of stout pins. 

 Tits, great and little, and Nuthatches, if there be any in 

 the neighbourhood, will soon discover them, and if once 

 attracted may thus be induced to pay daily visits to so 

 productive a garden. A Great Tit of unusual intelligence, 

 which frequents my garden at the present time, has been 

 frequently observed to draw up by its claws a walnut 

 suspended by a string from the bough of an apple-tree, 

 and 'to rifle its contents, being itself all the while leisurely 

 perched on the twig, and .keeping the nut firm by a 

 dexterous use of its claws. A charge, amounting to a grave 

 accusation against the Great Tit, and one which cannot 

 be palliated by the plea that he has accomplices, is, that 

 when driven by hunger and he has the opportunity, he 

 attacks other birds, splits their skulls by means of his 

 strong, sharp beak, and picks out their brains. The 

 evidence in this case is, I fear, too strong to be rebutted. 

 One story in particular, I find, of a Great Tit having 

 been placed in a well-filled aviary. In the course of a 

 single night, he had killed every one of his companions, 

 with the exception of a Quail, and when he was dis- 

 covered, he was in the very act of dealing to this the coup 

 L 2 



