PERCHING BIRDS. 83 



care in feeding their numerous progeny, their consump- 

 tion of the various ravagers of our fruits and flowers 

 must be considerable, more so, perhaps, than those who 

 have not watched their exemplary attention to their 

 young would be inclined to believe. 



Of the seven British species five are constantly to be 

 met with throughout the year, though some are more 

 abundant than others. 



The Great Titmouse (Parus major) delights in a 

 woodland home, but in the winter it is a constant 

 visitor to our gardens. In its search for insects it is un- 

 doubtedly very destructive to the buds of fruit trees, and 

 I have often remarked the partiality which it evinced 

 for the buds of a Siberian crab- tree in my own garden* 

 I have seen them in the beginning of December in our 

 woods in company with P. ceruleus, P. cuter, and 

 P. caudatus, busily searching the mossy trunks of the 

 old oak trees, prying into every crevice of the rugged 

 bark, or clinging to the branches and plucking off with 

 a vigorous twitch the withered leaves that still clung 

 closely to them. 



A writer in the Gardener's Chronicle states that he 

 has observed the great tit come down on the roof of his 

 wooden shed over his beehives, and tap on it with his 

 bill until a bee came out, when he pounced on it, and 

 ate it ; and this not once or twice. 



In our gardens the Blue Titmouse (P. ceruleus) is the 

 most constant visitor. Ever in motion, it seems the 

 personification of mischief, a veritable ornithological 

 mountebank, for in the course of five minutes it will go 

 through all the postures and attitudes which it is pos- 

 sible for a bird to practise, and while so doing it seems 

 to have no fear of determination of blood to the brain, 



G 2 



