222 Titmice. 



of the three, not in London alone, but throughout 

 the country; it is also, in our opinion, the most 

 beautiful indeed there are few British birds that 

 excel it in beauty, though the result no doubt of 

 its being very common it is not appreciated and 

 admired as it should be. Not only is this the 

 commonest of the tits, but it is also the most 

 friendly, delighting as it does in gardens and 

 orchards. Its food, like that of the others, con- 

 sists principally of insects, though it is, especially 

 in the winter- time, as Gilbert White said, " a 

 general devourer " and " a vast admirer of suet." 

 Gardeners consider it one of their greatest enemies, 

 but in this they are in the wrong, as, indeed, is not 

 uncommon with that most "opinionated race," 

 when birds are in question. They see it at work 

 among their fruit-trees, and because it plucks off 

 buds and scatters them on the ground, they declare 

 war against it, either forgetting or being ignorant 

 of the fact that it is not the bud, but the insect it 

 contains, which is attractive to the bird, and that 

 uninfected buds are safe from it. 



It is, in fact, doubtful whether birds of this 

 species are at any time vegetable feeders, though 

 many authors declare them to be so. But both the 

 great-tit and the coal-tit undoubtedly eat both 

 seeds and berries, the former being particularly 

 fond of the seeds of the sunflower. Darwin said 

 of the great-tit, " It sometimes, like a shrike, kills 

 small birds by blows on the head; and I have 

 many times seen and heard it hammering the seeds 



