THE TITMOUSE. 



Eobins, and a large family of singing-birds, usually separated 

 from the rest, under the term Sylvias or Warblers ; at the head 

 of which stands the Nightingale. Under the fourth, the Larks. 

 The Tomtits are familiar to everybody ; they might be called 

 our minor Jackdaws, so pert and bustling, never *at rest, 

 always prying about, peering into every little chink and 

 cranny, and, even in the breeding season, when most birds 

 retire to more unfrequented haunts, still lurking about our 

 homesteads, and placing their nests in the oddest and some- 

 times most conspicuous situations. Thus, a pair of Blue Tit- 

 mice built their nest in the upper part of an old pump, fixing 

 it on the pin in which the handle worked. It happened that 

 during the time of building and laying the eggs, the pump had 

 not been in use ; when again set going, the female was sitting, 

 and it was naturally supposed that the motion of the pump- 

 handle would drive her away. The young brood, however, 



were hatched safely, with- 

 out any other misfortune 

 than the loss of a part of 

 the tail of the sitting bird, 

 which was rubbed off by 

 the friction of the pump- 

 handle. The opening for 

 the pump-handle seerns, in- 

 deed, to be a favourite spot, 

 notwithstanding its danger, 

 as we knew of another pair 

 The Greater Titmouse. of Titmice, who, f or several 



days, persevered in inserting, close upon the point of the 

 handle, the materials for a nest, though, every time the handle 

 was raised, they were either crushed or forced out, till the 

 patience of the persevering little builders was fairly exhausted. 

 Another pair of the same species established themselves in a 

 still more singular, though certainly less frequented spot, neither 

 more nor less than in the mouth of the skeleton of a man who 

 had been hung in chains for murder. Another pair of a dif- 

 ferent species, the Great Titmouse, had wisely fortified them- 

 selves in the centre of an old Magpie's nest, where, surrounded 



