COLE TITMOUSE. 43 



71. BLUE TITMOUSE. (Paras cceruleus). 



Tomtit, Blue Tomtit, Nun, Blue-cap, Blue-bonnet, Billy-biter, 

 Hickwall, Blue Mope. One of the most impudent of an impu- 

 dent lot. A pair had built their nest in a crevice between the 

 lintel and stonework of my coach-house, and my children from 

 their nursery window observed it. Eor their amusement I got 

 a ladder and looked in. The bold little matron could not be 

 induced to leave the hole, but spit and hissed like a regular 

 vixen, and tried to make herself as big as two by ruffling up her 

 feathers, so as to frighten the owners of the ugly faces, as she 

 would think, she saw at her door. Often, too, have I been 

 bitten sharply by one I had laid hold of. Almost any hole in any 

 object will do for the nest-site. Even a bottle, a wooden box, a 

 pump-barrel, a queer-shaped cavity in an old tree only big enough 

 to admit such a small creature, all are made available. The nest 

 is voluminous, of moss, hair, and feathers ; and the eggs are almost 

 endless. From six up to twelve or thirteen is of common occur- 

 rence. Mr. Hewitson mentions one case of eighteen eggs ! They 

 are white, and spotted with pale red. The journeys of the old 

 birds to and from the nest when supplying their large family 

 with food are literally innumerable ; and the number of small 

 caterpillars, grubs, plant-lice, and the like, destroyed by these 

 indefatigable caterers, must be simply astonishing. I think the 

 pair just now referred to made at least one visit to the nest ever? 

 two minutes throughout the day. The climbing, clinging habit;, 

 of this and other Tomtits are very amusing; and in former days 

 I made them dance on the slack-rope for my amusement and my 

 friends'. I strung a nut or two on a piece of strong thread, and 

 tied ths two extremities to a tree and a nail in a wall near the 

 window, respectively. This plan gave me many lengthened 

 opportunities for watching their ways. I have also seen them strip- 

 ping off the loose bark from pine-planks and picking out the fine 

 fat grubs which eat their way between the wood and the bark. 

 Eiff. ^plate III. 



72. CHESTED TITMOUSE. (P0nw crtstatwi). 

 As rare with us as the last two Tits are common. 

 73. COLE TITMOUSE. (Parus ater). 



Coiemouse, Coal-head. A hardy little bird, of no rare occur- 

 rence in any part of the kingdom. Incessantly active and fre- 

 quently associating with other small birds it prosecutes a restless 

 search for the small insects and seeds which form its food. Its 

 nest, of moss and wool and hair is placed in a hole in a tree, 

 sometimes very near the ground ; sometimes even in a hole in the 



