THE TITS 1623 



THE TITS 

 Family 



Included, as we have already had occasion to remark, by Mr. Gates among the 

 Crows (from which they may be distinguished by the first primary quill never ex- 

 ceeding half the length of the second, and being generally still shorter), the tits are 

 by most ornithologists regarded as constituting a distinct family, which is placed by 

 Dr. Sharpe near the honey eaters. They constitute a considerable group of small, 

 agile birds, obtaining their food on trees, and living principally upon insects, al- 

 though they will also eat seeds and blossoms. They are all very much alike, and 

 have a short, conical, and entire beak, about one-third the length of the head, the 

 bristles at the rictus of the gape short, while those covering the nostrils, although 

 likewise short, are straight and very thick. The wing, which contains ten pri- 

 maries, is weak and rounded, and the metatarsus is scutellated. Thoroughly arbo- 

 real in their mode of life, seldom descending to the ground, and often going about 

 in parties of three or four, the tits are chiefly denizens of the Old World, some 

 inhabiting the forest regions of Northern Europe and Asia, while others are indig- 

 enous to the Himalayas, and others peculiar to North America, there being one 

 genus in New Zealand. 



The true tits are specially characterized by the absence of a crest on 



the head, and by the rounded tail, in which the outer pair of feathers 

 falls short of the tip by the length of the claw of the first toe. Distributed over a 

 large portion of the world, these birds are numerously represented in Europe, while 

 four are denizens of the Indian region; and they are also common in North America. 

 The beak is generally strong and conical, and thus well adapted to extract insects 

 from their hiding places in the bark of trees; while the wings are somewhat rounded, 

 and the tail comparatively short. 



The great tit (Parus major) is a common bird in the northern parts 



of 'the Old World, living in companies which haunt woods and gardens 

 during the greater part of the year. In England, writes Mr. Dresser, it " is a resi- 

 dent, frequenting during the summer season woods and large gardens, where its 

 food, which at that season of the year consists almost exclusively of insects, is best 

 to be found. They are excellent destroyers of the latter, and for that reason are 

 welcomed in any garden where the owners are sufficiently enlightened to know and 

 esteem their value. During the winter season they flock together in families, and 

 either roam about wherever there are trees, in company with creepers and other 

 small birds, diligently seeking after insects and their eggs in the bark of trees, or 

 else remaining in the neighborhood of inhabited places, picking up what refuse they 

 can find. They are remarkably fond of picking a bone, and may often be seen near 

 the kitchen door, watching for any stray scraps which may be thrown out. Some 

 friends of ours, who are fond of enticing them to remain about their gardens, feed 

 them during the winter by hanging lumps of suet in a small net on a piece of wire 

 fixed across a high stick, in order that they may be out of reach of the cats; and I 



