THE LONG-TAILED TITMOUSE. 125 



exertions nearly all that store of provision which 

 had been provided in the summer and deposited in 

 safety ; but, says Knapp, in his Joiirnal of a 

 Naturalist, " I have found the stomach of this small 

 Titmouse, even in February, quite filled with parts 

 of coleopterous creatures, which by their activity 

 and perseverance they had been enabled to procure 

 beneath the mosses on the branches, and from the 

 chinks in the bark of trees where they had retired 



in autumn." 



Such plenty being procurable after the supply of 

 so many months renders it apparent that there is 

 no actual deficiency of food at any period of the 

 year. The small slugs and some few insects doubt- 

 less perish from the severity of winter ; but the 

 larger portion of them are so constituted as to 

 derive no injury from the inclemency of that season, 

 but afford, during many months, provender to other 

 creatures, multitudes yet remaining to continue their 

 respective races and animate the air when the warm 

 days of spring waken them to active life. 



