I 



THE BLUE TITMOUSE. 97 



with vermin, and set a price upon its head, giving 

 fourpence for the dozen, probably the ancient pay- 

 ment when the groat was a coin." 1 



The Blue Tit is very fond of picking a bone, 

 and has even been seen to descend on the pieces of 

 beef and mutton exposed at the door of a butcher's 

 shop. It may readily be attracted by a bit of suet, 

 and if this be fastened to a piece of string and 

 allowed to hang from the end of a switch stuck 

 slantingly into the ground, it will clear it all away 

 by degrees, and in so doing will go through acrobatic 

 feats as wonderful as they are amusing. 



It is a fearless and friendly little bird, and in 

 selecting a nesting-place will often come not only 

 close to the house and occupy a hole in a tree, or 

 wall, within sight of our windows, but will even 

 enter an outhouse, and build its nest in such odd 

 situations as a gardener's tool-basket, a disused 

 watering-can, or the pocket of an old coat. Only 

 last summer we saw a nest of this bird which had 

 been made for the second time in an old hot-water 

 can, which, being found to leak, had been discarded 

 and hung up on a nail in an outhouse. The neck 



1 77/6' Journal of a Naturalist, p. 161. 

 H 



