142 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



thus strangely devoted to it by its untiring architects : 

 Length in front, 15 inches; height, 9 inches; depth 

 from front to back, measured to the angle of the 

 cupboard, 10 inches. In the centre of the upper part 

 was a slight depression in which the eggs were laid, and 

 here, in spite of frequent intrusions, from curious visitors, 

 the hen bird being even handled on her nest, these little 

 creatures reared five young ones, and carried them off in 

 safety. A similar nest, commenced in the previous 

 spring, was unfortunately destroyed, but since the 

 successful completion of the one above-mentioned, no 

 farther attempt has been made to repeat so formidable 

 a task. 



PARUS C2ERULEUS, Linneeus. 

 BLUE TITMOUSE.* 



Who does not love that pert little bluecap; whose 

 cheery notes are heard from the branches overhead, where, 

 without troubling oneself to look up, we know by the 

 very cadence, that he is jerking himself as usual from 

 twig to twig, now under, now over, head up or head 

 down, the same to him, though all the while his sharp eye 



* The provincial name of Pickcheese is here generally applied 

 to the blue titmouse, although Forby, in his " Vocabulary of East 

 Anglia," remarks "Perhaps the word includes most of the Linnean 

 genus Parus, or all its species ; yet it does not appear that any 

 of these pretty little ever busy birds are justly chargeable with 

 attacking our cheeses. If they get into dames or cheese chambers 

 at all, it must be in pursuit of the insects which breed there, 

 insects being their proper food." Mr. Alfred Newton suggests to 

 me that the name is possibly derived from one of the common call- 

 notes of the bird ; but with reference to the great titmouse, Mr. 

 St. John states (Nat. Hist, of Moray, p. 17), that he has known 

 that species repeatedly caught in mouse-traps, baited with toasted 

 cheese. 



