NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 89 



buildings ; and is found in every cranny and cleft of rock or 

 rubbish, and even in the ground itself. 



Every species of titmouse winters with us ; they have what 

 I call a kind of intermediate bill between the hard and the soft, 

 between the Linnaean genera of Fringilla and Motacilla. One 

 species alone spends its whole time in the woods and fields, 

 never retreating for succor in the severest seasons to houses 

 and neighborhoods; and that is the delicate long-tailed tit- 

 mouse, which is almost as minute as the golden-crowned wren ; 

 but the blue titmouse or nun (Panes ccendeus], the coal-mouse 

 (Parus ater), the great black-headed titmouse (Fringillago), 

 and the marsh titmouse (Parus palustris\ all resort at times 

 to buildings, and in hard weather particularly. The great 

 titmouse, driven by stress of weather, much frequents houses ; 

 and, in deep snows, I have seen this bird, while it hung with 

 its back downwards (to my no small delight and admiration), 

 draw straws lengthwise from out the eaves of thatched houses, 

 in order to pull out the flies that were concealed between them, 

 and that in such numbers that they quite defaced the thatch, 

 and gave it a ragged appearance. 



The blue titmouse, or nun, is a great frequenter of houses, 

 and a general devourer. Besides insects, it is very fond of 

 flesh ; for it frequently picks bones on dunghills : it is a vast 

 admirer of suet, and haunts butchers' shops. When a boy, I 

 have known twenty in a morning caught with snap mouse- 

 traps, baited with tallow or suet. It will also pick holes in 

 apples left on the ground, and be well entertained with the 

 seeds on the head of a sunflower. The blue, marsh, and great 

 titmice will, in very severe weather, carry away barley and oat- 

 straws from the sides of ricks. 



How the wheat-ear and whin-chat support themselves in 

 winter cannot be so easily ascertained, since they spend their 

 time on wild heaths and warrens ; the former especially, where 

 there are stone quarries : most probably it is that their main- 

 tenance arises from the aureliae of the Lepidoptera ordo, which 

 furnish them with a plentiful table in the wilderness. 



I am, etc. 



