of Selborne 93 



selves np during the cold season. But the grand support 

 of the soft-billed birds in winter is that infniite profusion 

 of mtrelifR of the lepidoptera ordo^ which is fastened to 

 the twigs of trees and their trunks; to (he p.ilos and 

 walls of gardens and buildings ; and is found in every 

 cranny and cleft of rock or rubbish, and even in the 

 ground itself. 



Every species of titmouse winters with us ; they have 

 what I call a kind of intermediate bill between the hard 

 and the soft, between the Linn?ean genera of fringilla 

 and mofacilla. One species alone spends its whole time 

 in the woods and fields, never retreating for succour in 

 the severest seasons to houses and neighbourhoods ; and 

 that is the delicate long-tailed titmouse, which is almost 

 as minute as the golden-crowned wren : but the blue tit- 

 mouse, or nun {j)arus cceruletfs), the cole-mouse {parus 

 aier)^ the great black-headed titmouse {frhigillago)^ and 

 the marsh titmouse {pants palustfis), all resort, at times, 

 to buildings ; and in hard weather particularly. The 

 great titmouse, driven by stress of weather, much fre- 

 quents houses, and, in deep snows, I have seen this bird, 

 while it hung w'ith its back downwards (to my no small 

 delight and admiration), draw straw lengthwise from out 

 the eaves of thatched houses, in order to pull out the flies 

 that were concealed between them, and that in such num- 

 bers 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. Beside insects, it is 

 very fond of flesh ; for it frequently picks bones on dung- 

 hills : it is a vast admirer of suet, and haunts butchers' 

 shops. When a boy, I have known twenty in a morning 

 caught with snap mousetraps, 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 sun- 

 flower. 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 



