SOS 



TI T. 



articles BEARDED-REED BIRD, BLUE-TIT, and BOTTLE- 

 TIT. 



The tits properly so called have the characters 

 which have been mentioned as denoting the genus, 



GREAT TIT (P. major"). This is a small bird, 

 though a great one among tits. The general colour 

 of the upper part is olive green, and that of the under 

 part yellowish. The top of the head is black, marked 

 off by bands of white along the temples, and the 

 upper neck is yellowish. It is about five inches and 

 three quarters in length, and eight inches and a third 

 in the expanse of the wings. It is a very common 

 bird in most parts of the eastern continent, migrant 

 in the extreme north, and moving from the woods to the 

 neighbourhood of houses in winter in the middle lati- 

 tudes ; but in most places it is a stationary bird, or, at 

 all events, one which does not move far in latitude, 

 though it may occupy different kinds of surfaces at 

 different seasons of the year. They are most active 

 birds, clearing the trees of insects with great dexte- 

 rity. They are also bee-eaters, and rather injurious 

 in situations where hives are numerous. They eat 

 nuts, beech-mast, and other oily fruits, and they hold 

 a nut very neatly in their claws, while with the bill 

 they punch a hole in the shell, and very speedily ex- 

 tract the kernel. The nest is constructed of moss 

 externally, and lined with down, feathers, or other 

 soft matters ; and the birds always prefer a hole of a 

 tree, a wall, or some other substantial cover and con- 

 cealment. The eggs vary in number ; sometimes 

 they are not more than six, but they are more fre- 

 quently as many as ten or twelve. The young are 

 produced in a very immature state, and quite blind, 

 in which condition they remain for a few days ; but 

 they grow rapidly, and in about two weeks after 

 coming out of the shell they are able to take to the 

 wing. The young keep in company with each other 

 during the remainder of the year in which they are 

 produced ; and they arrive at their full size when 

 about six months old. They have nothing that can 

 be called a song. In the pairing time their chirp is 

 not unpleasant ; but at other seasons it is rough and 

 grating, something like the crushing of a cinder under 

 the foot. This bird, not having any musical powers, 

 need not be confined in a cage as a songster, and its 

 pugnacious disposition makes it a very unsafe com- 

 panion for song birds ; but, if in a cage by itself, it 

 may be taught some amusing tricks. 



COLE-TIT (P. ater). This is a much smaller bird 

 han the former, being not much more than a quarter 

 of an ounce in weight, while the great tit weighs 

 about an ounce and a quarter. This one has the 

 head black, the hind head white, and the rest of the 

 upper part ash colour ; the white extends some dis- 

 tance down the breast, and passes into yellowish 

 white on the rest of the under part. The nest is 

 always placed in concealment, and carefully made. 

 A hollow of a tree, and the thickly matted herbage at 

 the base of a young pine, or even close furze or broom, 

 affords it not an unappropriate locality. The eggs 

 vary from six to ten or twelve, but rarely the latter 

 number. They are of a pure white colour, delicately 

 spotted with rusted red. It is more of a forest bird 

 than the great tit, and seldom comes to the vicinity 

 of houses unless in very severe weather. Its usual 

 food is insects and their larvae ; and in the winter 

 season it hunts the crevices of the bark and the hy- 

 bernacula of buds, for any insects, larvae, or pupae, 

 that may be lurking there. Small as it is, it is very 



hardy and very generally distributed, being met with 

 in the whole range of the eastern continent, from 

 Lapland to the Cape of Good Hope. It is not, how- 

 ever, so generally seen, as the great tit or the blue ; 

 but that is as much owing to the peculiarity of its 

 haunts as to the absolute inferiority of its numbers. 

 It is a very wary little creature, and as it runs on the 

 bark of trees with nearly the same celerity as the 

 creepers, and runs in any direction, the sight which 

 can be had of it is very momentary. With the ex- 

 ception of the long-tailed one (see BOTTLE-TIT), it is 

 the smallest of all the British species. 



THE MARSH TIT (P. palustris) is also a small spe- 

 cies, though nearly one half heavier than the cole-tit. 

 Its colours are similar ; that is to say, the head is 

 black, and the general tint of the rest of the upper 

 plumage greyish. The back wants the greenish tinge 

 which it has in the preceding species, and the head is 

 not so black. The whole plumage is also less glossy. 

 Though called the marsh tit, this cannot be considered 

 as a marsh bird in the proper sense of the word, as it 

 is not found in the fens, or actually feeding or living 

 over the water in any situation. But it is fond of 

 humid places which have a tangled vegetation of 

 brakes and osier beds, and the stumps of old willows, 

 alders, and other trees that like marshy places, but 

 not absolutely the marshes themselves. It is a hid- 

 ling bird, and not very often seen in proportion to 

 its actual numbers. The nest is usually in the hol- 

 low of the stump of an old tree ; and on this account 

 osier plantations and oak copses which are cut for bark, 

 and both of which are usually near the banks of streams, 

 are favourable nesting places for this tit ; but if these 

 are not to be had, it seeks the cover of a brake or 

 bush, or the thick underwood at the root of a tree. 

 The nest is formed of moss, lined with softer matters, 

 such as the down of the willow. The eggs are about 

 the same in number as those of the cole-tit, and not 

 very different from them in appearance, only they 

 are a little larger in size, and rather more speckled 

 about the thick ends. In summer the marsh tits con- 

 sume great numbers of flies, bees, wasps, moths, and 

 all the winged insects which are found in their loca- 

 lities. In winter that supply fails, and they are obliged 

 to shift their ground. They do not frequent the 

 trunks and branches of high trees so much as the 

 other tits ; but rather eat the ends of the larger Com- 

 posite, many of which are sweet, and contain a great 

 quantity of nutritious matter in a very small compass. 

 In extreme cases they approach houses and farm- 

 yards, and readily eat any garbage that comes in 

 their way. They are not so gay in their plumage, 

 nor so active in their conduct, as the great tits, and 

 especially not as the blue ones, but still they are lively 

 birds. 



THE CRESTED TIT (P. cristatui) is a woodland 

 species, most abundant in the cold latitudes and in 

 upland places ; it prefers the pine forests, and 

 especially the junipers, and other close evergreens of 

 more lowly growth, to the tall pines and spruces. It 

 is exceedingly rare as a British bird, if it be any thing 

 more than an accidental straggler. The upper parts 

 are reddish-brown ash ; the cheeks and sides of the 

 neck are whitish ; and the feathers on the top of the 

 head stand up and form a sort of crest of a pyramidal 

 shape, of which the individual feathers are black with 

 white borders, which gives it altogether a hoary ap- 

 pearance. There is also a streak of black along the 

 temple, and a black collar on the neck. The under 



