



THE BLUE TITMOUSE. 95 



continuity of even the stiffened vessels is broken, 

 and the new production, even if the tree lives, is 

 wasted in unsightly gnarls and knobs, which afford 

 further shelter and protection to insects, and form 

 lodgments for water which stagnates and rots the 

 wood. Heading down and grafting is generally 

 only loss of time and labour ; and the diseased 

 remains inoculate other trees." 1 



Such would be the natural course with most 

 trees, and with all the finer fruit trees, especially if 

 the buds were not cleared by birds ; and amongst 

 these birds the garden -frequenting Tits are as 

 notable in their way as are Rooks amongst the 

 larger birds which clear the fields of insects. As a 

 destroyer of insects of all kinds the Blue Titmouse 

 stands pre-eminent amongst its fellows, and hunts 

 with unwearied perseverance. It peeps into the 

 nail-holes of our walls, which, though closed by the 

 cobwebs, will not secrete the spider within ; it draws 

 out the chrysalis of the cabbage-butterfly from the 

 chinks in the barn ; it takes the maggots from the 

 oak-galls, and, according to Mr. Bond, feeds its 

 young very much with the small larvae of the goose- 



1 Mudie, Feathered Tribes of the British Islands, vol. i. p. 347. 



