io8 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE, 



a kind of intermediate bill between the hard and the soft, between 

 the Linnaean genera of Fringilla and Motacilla. One species 

 alone spends its whole time in the woods and fields, never retreat- 

 ing for succour in the severest seasons to houses and neighbour- 

 hoods ; and that is the delicate long-tailed titmouse, which is 

 almost as minute as the golden-crowned wren ; but the blue 

 titmouse or nun (Parus cceruleus), the cole-mouse (Parus afer], 

 the great black-headed titmouse (Fringillago\ and the marsh 

 . titmouse (Parus palustris), all resort at times to buildings, and in 

 hard weather particularly. The great titmouse, driven by stress of 

 weather, much frequents houses ; and, in deep snows, I have seen 

 this bird, while it hung with its back downwards (to my no small 

 delight and admiration), draw straws lengthwise from out the eaves 

 of thatched houses, in order to pull out the flies that were con- 

 cealed between 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 mouse-traps, 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 wheat-ear 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 probably it is that their maintenance arises 

 from the aurelias of the Lepidoptera ordo, which furnish them with 

 a plentiful table in the wilderness.* 



I am, c. 



* See Letter XXXIX. , and note. 



