122 TITMOUSE. 



their trunks ; to the pales 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 Lin- 

 naean genera of frangilla and motacilla. 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 titmouse, or nun (parus c&ru- 

 leus) the cole mouse (parus ater), the great black- 

 headed titmouse (fringillago), and the marsh tit- 

 mouse (parus palustris), all resort, at times, to 

 buildings ; and in hard weather particularly. The 

 great titmouse, driven by stress of weather, much 

 frequents houses, and, in deep snows, I have seen 

 this bird, while it hung with its back downwards 

 (to my no small delight and admiration), draw 

 straws lengthwise from out the eaves of thatched 

 houses, in order to pull out the flies that were 

 concealed between them, and that in such numbers 

 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. Besides in- 

 sects, it is very fond of flesh ; for it frequently 

 picks bones on dunghills ; it is a vast admirer of 

 suet, and haunts butchers' shops. When a boy, 

 I have known twenty in a morning caught with 

 snap mouse-traps, baited with Callow 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 



