84 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 



for it is quite as often seen with its head downwards as 

 otherwise. It is a carnivorous little fellow, and delights 

 in a bit of carrion. My next door neighbour, being a 

 sportsman, kept a number of dogs, and to feed these, 

 the carcases of sheep that had died in the fields were 

 often skinned and hung up on poles around the kennel. 

 These I have sometimes seen covered by as many as 

 forty or fifty of the blue titmice, pecking away with all 

 the vigour of which they are capable, and that is not a 

 little. Tallow scraps, too, which were used for feeding 

 the dogs, were much relished, but the carrion had the 

 preference. 



Professor Buckman has recently noticed that the blue 

 tit benefits foresters by destroying the Hies which cause 

 the oak galls, which in many parts of the country are 

 threatening ruin to young oak plantations. 



The blue tit is not afraid to enter houses, and I have 

 very often found them in a detached room in my garden 

 that was used as a schoolroom, taking advantage of the 

 door being left open. They would generally fly to the 

 window on any one entering the room, but did not 

 exhibit much fear, and when I have caught them in my 

 hand the little things would bite fiercely at my fingers 

 and try to effect their liberation. 



Mr. Hewitson mentions a pair of bluecaps having 

 built their nest in a bottle, and the following is another 

 instance more remarkable still, and is well authen- 

 ticated : 



In 1779 a pair of these birds built their nest in a 

 large stone bottle that had been left to drain in the 

 lower branches of a plum tree in the garden of Calender, 

 near Stockton-on-Tees, and safely hatched their young. 

 Every following year the bottle was frequented for the 



