NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 177 



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 espe- 

 cially, where there are stone quarries : most probably it is 

 that their maintenance arises from the aurelice of the Lepi- 

 doptera ordo, which furnish them with a plentiful table in 

 the wilderness. 1 



I am, &c. 



1 See Letter XIII, and note (antea, p. 52). [R. B. S.] 



