i5 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS 



That Great Tits may be bigamists is possible, that they are Bluebeards and 

 cannibals we know ; for if two Ox-eyes are kept together in the same cage, one 

 will sooner or later kill the other, and eat (at least) its brains. Some years since 

 I caught twenty-three Great Tits, nine of which I turned into two large flight 

 cages, but they gradually devoured one another until two were left ; subsequently, 

 as I needed one of the cages, I turned the two savages in together, and, next 

 morning, one of them was reduced to the condition of Jezebel after the wild dogs 

 had left her : the uncanny consumer of its brethren lived through two moults 

 afterwards, but lost all its beauty, becoming extremely pale in plumage, the 

 under-parts a dirty cream-colour. 



A Great Tit turned into an aviary with other birds, is about as safe a com- 

 panion for the latter as a good healthy brown rat would be : charming and useful 

 when free, he is repulsive in captivity on account of his murderous disposition. 



The food of this bird when wild consists largely of insects and their larvae, 

 spiders, seeds and buds, also flesh and fat when procurable.* The absurd state- 

 ments made by many writers, as to this and the other Tits only destroying buds 

 for the sake of the maggots contained therein, can be disproved by anyone who 

 has turned them into an aviary in which shrubs and creepers are planted : in so 

 limited an area two or three days will suffice to dismantle every shrub and creeper 

 of both buds and leaves, which are wantonly torn off" and dropped. Of course, in 

 the open, buds are so many and birds are so few, that comparatively little real 

 mischief is done ; and probably no more fruit buds are destroyed than a gardener 

 would purposely prune away in the form of unripe fruit. Birds nevertheless 

 destroy, not buds only, but leaves and green bark, in which no suspicion of a 

 maggot exists, out of simple wanton destructiveness ; just as they will snatch 

 feathers from one another and fling them away. 



In captivity, this, and all the Titmice, are very fond of nuts, especially 

 Barcelonas and walnuts ; next to which, mutton suet is their favourite food ; these 

 dainties they will eat almost immediately after their capture ; although, for the first 

 day or so, Great Tits spend most of their time in hammering at the wire and 

 woodwork of their prison : pretty as they are, it is wrong to shut them up ; their 

 nature is far too wild. 



In May, 1886, I tried hand-rearing Ox-eyes: there were four of them, which 

 had formed part of a family hatched in a hollow plum-tree : I found them quarrel- 

 some above all nestlings, clamorous, and voracious ; their call for food was chur- 



* The young are fed largely on green caterpillars, and I have watched a pair for a considerable time 

 incessantly travelling backwards and forwards from their nest to a plantation of currant and gooseberry bushes, 

 each time bringing a mouthful of the caterpillars of the destructive little looping caterpillar of the V-moth 



(Halia wavaria). 



