194 THE TITS 



Acts ; for these once relentlessly persecuted Tits are now found to 

 be useful as well as ornamental. 



Much has been done of late years to prove the economic value of 

 the Titmice. 1 Yarrell tells us how, " In many parishes in England, a 

 price used to be paid by the churchwardens for the heads of the blue- 

 tit and its congeners under the general name of ' Tomtits,' on 

 account of the loss they were believed to inflict on the gardeners, yet 

 no one can be more mistaken than these men." Stevenson in his 

 Birds of Norfolk, when speaking of the hatred shown to the Tit Family 

 by gardeners, remarks, "Even the most obstinate of that opinionated 

 race need but dissect the next victim of his folly, to know that he has 

 killed a friend." 2 



But those who are open-minded, and neither opinionated nor 

 obstinate, should turn to Mr. R. Newstead's little pamphlet on this 

 subject. 3 The conclusions set forth in this tract are based upon ex- 

 periments carried out by the author, and extending over a period of 

 twenty years. In every case the contents of the birds' stomachs were 

 examined, with the result that he places marsh, coal, and longtailed- 

 tits unhesitatingly amongst those species " innoxious and more or less 

 strictly beneficial." Great and blue-tits come under the heading of 

 " species which are generally considered pests of the farm and garden, 

 but with the balance of utility in their favour" In fact, but for the injury 

 which they occasionally do to ripe pears, they might come under the 

 heading of "species which are occasionally injurious, but with a 

 balance of utility in their favour." The italics are my own. 



In the case of each longtailed, coal, and marsh-tit examined, the 

 birds had fed upon insects of the injurious group, while the last two 

 birds had in addition eaten seeds of the marsh-thistle. The diet of 

 all these consisted of weevils, scale-insects, moth-larvae, including 

 larvae of cabbage-moth, American blight, and gall-making insects ; 

 besides many dipterous insects and centipedes. This being the result 



1 Yarrell, British Birds, p. 484. 2 Birds of Norfolk, vol. i. p. 143. 



3 " Food of some British Birds." Supplement to the Journal of the Board of Agriculture. 



