THE TITMOUSE FAMILY 179 



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In the pines and firs, in the hawthorn and barberry 

 bushes ah'eady stripped of their leaves which I could see 

 from my window, all the different species of titmice were 

 represented, seeming to live in perfect harmony. They 

 formed various grouj:)s, all very busy and very restless. 

 To class them all by name one by one would require a 

 numbering almost after the fashion of Homer. 



There was the great black- headed titmouse easily re- 

 cognised by its square build, its black hood and black 

 breast-plate. When the weather is unsettled and it is 

 going to rain, it utters a cry which is like the grinding of a 

 file on a piece of iron, whence one of its French surnames : 

 la serriiriere (the locksmith). But generally it has a pleas- 

 ing warble, especially in the season of love. It builds its 

 nest in the holes of walls, in the trunks of trees, some- 

 times also in coal-sheds abandoned by coal-burners. 



Beside the great black-headed titmouse, the blue tit- 

 mouse is very busy, the prettiest, the boldest, the bravest 

 of the family ; — it is a lovely bird with its delicate head 

 covered by a blue hood, its bluish wings, its white cheeks 

 and its dark blue collar. This bird is the most terrible 

 destroyer of caterpillars. It has been calculated that it 

 eats daily half an ounce of eggs of butterflies. 



Then comes the ash-coloured titmouse or nun, which 

 stores away seed in its hole and makes war on wasps ; — 

 then the great titmouse, which weaves its mossy nest in a 

 marvellous manner, and suspends it on the boughs of trees 



