IO4 OUR IRISH SONG BIRDS. 



Ireland the Great Tit, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, and Long- 

 tailed Tit. The Marsh Tit does not occur at present in 

 Ireland. As the habits of these different birds are 

 almost identical, I shall first notice the points common 

 to all four, and then briefly describe the song and other 

 peculiarities of each. 



Insects constitute the staple food of Titmice, although 

 at times they seem almost omnivorous, and will eat pears, 

 turnips, apples, and even pick bones. The quantity of 

 insects and caterpillars they destroy is really astonishing. 

 Mr. Weir states that a pair of Blue Tits fed their young 

 between a quarter-past two in the morning and half-past 

 eight in the evening no less than 475 times, each time 

 bringing at least one caterpillar, and sometimes two or 

 three ; so that this one pair probably destroyed six or 

 seven hundred in the course of a single day. Were it 

 not for the operations of the Tits in searching for and 

 destroying the eggs and larvae of destructive insects, our 

 crops and trees would, in many instances, suffer irre- 

 trievable injury. If the Rooks clear the fields of the 

 larger insects, the Tits perform a similar office for the 

 trees and shrubs : nay, more ; for, as Mr. Harting 

 remarks, "The Blue Titmouse, pre-eminent amongst its 

 fellows as an insect-destroyer, 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 gooseberry-moth, while it also preys on 

 the grubs of wood-boring beetles, including Scolytus 

 destructor, the worst foe of the clan." 



