COLE TIT. 195 



at home. It is of an apparently restless disposition, moving 

 like 'Young Rapid,' from place to place, from hedge to hedge, 

 from tree to tree, from wood to wood, from district to dis- 

 trict. It is addicted to woods, as supplying its food, but I 

 have met with it in ordinary cultivated districts. It frequently 

 seeks its food on the ground. 



It is more shy than the preceding species, or the Blue-cap. 

 I copy the following life-like description of this interesting 

 Tittle bird and its associates from Mr. Macgiilivray; its truth- 

 fulness I can fully attest: 'It is pleasant to follow a troop 

 of these tiny creatures, as they search 1 the tree tops, spreading 

 all around, fluttering and creeping along the branches, ever 

 in motion, now clinging to a twig in .an inverted position, 

 now hovering over a tuft of leaves, picking in a crevice of 

 the bark, searching all the branches, sometimes visiting the 

 lowermost, and again winding among those at the very tops 

 of the trees. In wandering among these woods you are at- 

 tracted by their shrill cheeping notes, which they continually 

 emit as they nutter among the branches; and few persons 

 thus falling in with a flock, can help standing still to watch 

 their motions for a while.' It is also observable how suddenly, 

 without any apparent cause, the whole troop, as if under 

 marching orders, flit in a body from the tree, and alight 

 elsewhere, again to go through their exercises, evolutions, and 

 manoeuvres. 



Its flight is short and unsteady, produced by a continual 

 flutter. 



The food of the Cole Titmouse consists of insects, worms, 

 caterpillars, and seeds. In search of the former it will pick 

 with extreme rapidity all round in a circle, without so much 

 as disturbing a single 'sere and yellow leaf,' though perched 

 on the centre of its under side. It is said to be particularly 

 fond of the berries of the woodbine, and to hold any hard 

 seed with its feet against a branch, and peck at it till it 

 obtains the kernel. In the winter it also feeds on wheat and 

 oats, and appears to hoard up some portion of a superabundant 

 supply of food against a day of scarcity. Occasionally it will 

 pick a bone or other fragment with much zest. 



The note, which is first heard in February, is unmusical, 

 and is rendered by Meyer, by the syllables 'zit, zit,' and 'zit- 

 tee;' 'che-chee, che-chee' may also serve to express it. In the 

 spring it is very loud, and may be heard nearly as far as 

 that of the Oxeye suspended for the most part until August, 



