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B O T T L E - T I T. 



Li the young ; a difference which, however slight it 

 may appear, is very striking when the two birds are 

 seen together. 



The above detailed descriptions are taken from a 

 considerable number of specimens, amongst which 

 there is no variation, at least beyond that already 

 adverted to as resulting from disparity of age ; and 

 we have been thus particular in noting down all the 

 minutiae, having some reason to apprehend, from the 

 descriptions of various authors, that two or three 

 species, inhabiting different parts of Europe, are at 

 present confounded together. 



In describing the smaller feathered inhabitants of 

 Britain, we have perhaps, in several instances, been 

 rather more minute than the subject would altogether 

 seem to require ; but our object in being so has been 

 to render the different species at once recognisable to 

 all who wish to distinguish them in the fields. The 

 study of birds offers peculiar advantages to those who 

 have but little time for these pursuits. Quadrupeds, 

 in a state of nature, are for the most part wild and 

 wary, ever anxious to elude the eye of man ; con- 

 cealed during the day in holes and coverts, and in 

 most instances coming out only by night when dark- 

 ness veils them from our most vigilant research, they 

 frequently defy the observation of the naturalist. In 

 like mariner are the inhabitants of the waters in great 

 measure concealed by the medium in which they live, 

 and insects are often hidden from us by their minute- 

 ness. Birds alone are ever before us ; secure in their 

 power of rising buoyant into the air, they move in 

 confidence around, their beauty and familiarity pleas- 

 ing the eye, whilst their melody, or even their most 

 dissonant and harsh cries, from associations connected 

 with them, delight the ear. And who is there that 

 seeing does not admire these beautiful creatures, and 

 that admiring does not feel a wish to become better 

 acquainted with them ? Moreover, there is a pleasure 

 in verifying from our own observations the various 

 accounts which we meet with in books ; and nought 

 is more likely to interest a young observer, and to 

 incite him to fresh researches, than the qualification 

 he feels in being able to judge from his own experi- 

 ence of the accuracy of at least a part of what is laid 

 before him ; he will endeavour, so far as is within his 

 power, to assure himself by observation of the remain- 

 der, having already perhaps been often led astray by 

 some of the erroneous compilations so much about ; 

 and in the course of his investigations will, not at all 

 improbably, discover something worthy of notice that 

 had previously escaped the attention of observers. 

 Again, the meeting with a full description of objects 

 which are continually within the range of our own 

 observation not unfrequently awakens, in some minds, 

 an interest about those objects which was entirely 

 unfelt before ; strange as it may seem, many persons 

 seem to regard all common objects of natural history 

 with feelings of great indifference, not to say con- 

 tempt; and yet, from these very persons, we have 

 often obtained much curious and interesting informa- 

 tion respecting the habits of singular or uncommon 

 species ; information which our own subsequent re- 

 searches have, in some instances, enabled us to verify 

 and extend. Indeed it is not by any means unusual 

 to meet with persons, collectors perhaps and preserv- 

 ers of the more curious British animals, who have a 

 considerable acquaintance with the haunts and habits 

 of many of our rare and less known species, but who 

 are nevertheless absolutely ignorant of almost all that 



concerns many which are much commoner, though at 

 the same time perhaps not so conspicuous. To these 

 commoner animals we would wish to direct attention ; 

 their habits are often very interesting, and the study 

 of them is alike accessible to all, yet they are not 

 unfrequently still involved in much greater obscurity 

 than many which but seldom come within the sphere 

 of our observation ; and this, from the comparatively 

 little attention which has hitherto been bestowed upon 

 them. We are not aware that the various peculiari- 

 ties of the bottle-tit or long-tailed titmouse, the subject 

 of the present article, have ever yet been pointed out, 

 nor the distinctive peculiarities in which it differs from 

 all the other members of the genus, in which it has 

 usually been arranged. 



There are few but must have observed sometimes, 

 during the autumn and winter, a number of very small 

 birds with long tails, following each other along the 

 hedges, or from tree to tree, in a little troop, yet busily 

 engaged the while in searching every twig and tuft 

 of buds for insect food, hanging often with their backs 

 downwards, and assuming every possible variety of 

 curious and constrained attitude. " It seems," says 

 an elegant and pleasing writer, Mr. Knapp, " the 

 most restless of little creatures, and is all day long in 

 a state of progression from tree to tree, from hedge 

 to hedge, jerking through the air with its long tail 

 like a ball of feathers, or threading the branches of a 

 tree, several following each other in a little stream ; 

 the leading bird uttering a shrill cry of twitter, twitter, 

 and away they all scuttle to be first, stop for a second, 

 and then are away again, observing the same order 

 and precipitation the whole day long. The space 

 travelled by these diminutive creatures, in the course 

 of their progresses from the first move till the evening 

 roost, must be considerable; yet, by their constant 

 alacrity and animation, they appear fully equal to 

 their daily task." 



This little bird subsists entirely upon the smallest 

 insects in different stages of their growth ; in this 

 differing from the true titmice, as we would limit 

 that genus, the different species of which (see TIT- 

 MOUSE) are about the most omnivorous of little 

 birds, and feed not only on insects, fruit, various 

 kinds of grain, and even carrion, but sometimes 

 also on such young and sickly birds as they can 

 master, a fact of which the writer of this article has 

 been more than once an eye-witness in different 

 species. But the bottle-tit at no season touches aught 

 but insect food, nor to obtain this does it ever, like 

 the Pari, purposely approach our habitations, but 

 keeps to hedges and thickets throughout the year. 

 We have had occasion to examine numbers of them 

 at all seasons, and in winter have almost invariably 

 found in them the remains of a small species of beetle 

 with pale brown elytra, but which we cannot exactly 

 specificate from its being always so imperfect. It 

 has, in common with the pari, the habit in winter of 

 sometimes pulling off the buds of trees; but as stated 

 in our account of the blue titmouse, we are very 

 doubtful whether this is ever done but where the 

 traces of insect food are discernible. 



TJie tits, as we have already had occasion to 

 observe (see BLUE TITMOUSE and BEARDED REED 

 BIRD), are remarkable for their jay-like habit of con- 

 stantly holding their food with the foot, or with both 

 feet, whilst they pick it to pieces with the bill ; but 

 the bottle-tit at no time holds its food in this manner, 

 nor has it the slightest notion of so doing. On giving 



