TASTE. 109 



cessful in finding- insects with its curved bill, as the 

 tit that has to dig before they can be reached. It is 

 moreover paying a bad compliment, unauthorized by 

 facts, to the quickness of the carpenter-birds, to 

 suppose they catch so few of the insects which they 

 have been at the trouble to dislodge, as to leave 

 enough for the creepers to subsist upon. The tits 

 are besides so very voracious as to be unlikely to leave 

 the least particle of any thing eatable behind them. 

 A pair of the oxeye (Parus major, RAY), provincially 

 named the willow-biter, or Joe Bent, "will," says 

 Mr. Knapp, " attach themselves to a crop of peas in 

 our gardens, and unremittingly persevere in the busi- 

 ness of consuming them, from morning until night, 

 without any abatement of appetite or lassitude from 

 employ*." We have at present (1832) one of those 

 birds which will, in the course of one day, devour 

 more than half his own weight (ten drams) of hemp- 

 seed, German paste, biscuit, or any other food what- 

 ever; his incessant exercise in climbing about the cage, 

 tumbling and throwing somersets, in every possible 

 variety of attitude, enabling him no doubt to digest 

 quantities comparatively so enormous f. 



* Journ. of a Naturalist, p. 207, 3d edit. f J. R. 



