THE BLUE-TIT. 157 



esque effect, with rockery, a shelving shingly bank and a rather deep stream some 

 fourteen feet in length. Such attempts to imitate nature are a mistake, unless the 

 rockery can be made of smooth slabs of solid stone easily cleaned, and even then 

 they are liable to harbour mice. The result as regards my Marsh-Tits was, that 

 the hen bird when washing, one cold day in January, 1891, either got out of her 

 depth or was seized with cramp, and I found her floating dead on the surface of 

 the water : she was not the first victim, but her death decided me to abandon 

 artistic effect in aviaries. 



The male bird lived some months longer, and made a perfectly innocent and 

 very pretty addition to my feathered family ; he fed principally upon seeds, nuts, 

 and suet ; but was always ready for spiders, as well as insects and their larvae 

 when they were procurable, and he ate a certain quantity, though not a great deal 

 of the usual soft food : he was never spiteful ; but, if a beef-bone was suspended in 

 the aviary he would join a party of Siskins upon it in perfect amity : indeed, 

 unlike the Blue-Tit, he seemed unwilling to dispute over trifles, and if a Siskin 

 took a fancy to the position which he occupied on the bone, the Marsh-Tit 

 immediately yielded it up. 



As regards longevity in captivity I cannot recommend this, or any of the Tits 

 to aviculturists ; possibly they require more insect-food than I was able to give 

 them ; but, at any rate, I never succeeded in keeping any of these birds for much 

 over a year ; and most of them, when opened after death, were clearly proved to 

 have died from phthisis. 



Family PARID&. 



THE BLUE-TIT. 



Parus ccErideus, L/INN. 



" IT^VlSTRIBUTED over the whole of temperate and southern Europe, as far 



1 J east as the Ural Mountains and the Caucasus. In Norway, owing to the 



comparative mildness of the climate, it is found as far north as lat. 64; but in 



VOL. i. 2 D 



