182 NATURAL HISTORY 



tween them, and that in such numbers that they quite 

 defaced the thatch, and gave it a ragged appearance. 



The blue titmouse, or nun, is a great frequenter of 

 houses, and a general devourer. Besides insects, it is 

 very fond of flesh ; for it frequently picks bones on 

 dunghills: it is a vast admirer of suet, and haunts 

 butchers' shops. When a boy, I have known twenty 

 in. a morning caught with snap mousetraps, baited with 

 tallow or suet. It will also pick holes in apples left on 

 the ground, and be well entertained with the seeds on 

 the head of a sunflower. The blue, marsh, and great 

 titmice will, in very severe weather, carry away barley 

 and oat straws from the sides of ricks. 



How the wheatear and whin chat support themselves 

 in winter cannot be so easily ascertained, since they 

 spend their time on wild heaths and warrens ; the 

 former especially, where there are stone quarries : 

 most probable it is, that their maintenance arises from 

 the aureliae of the Ordo Lepidoptera, which furnish them 

 with a plentiful table in the wilderness. 



I am, &c. 



LETTER XLII. 



TO THE SAME. 

 DEAR SIR, SELBORNE, March 9, 1775. 



SOME future Faunist, a man of fortune, will, I hope, 

 extend his visits to the kingdom of Ireland ; a new 

 field, and a country little known to the naturalist. He 

 will not, it is to be wished, undertake that tour unac- 

 companied by a botanist, because the mountains have 

 scarcely been sufficiently examined ; and the southerly 

 counties of so mild an island may possibly afford some 

 plants little to be expected within the British domi- 

 nions. A person of a thinking turn of mind will draw 



