PASSERINE BIRDS. 



425 



. The Titmice, or Tits (Parus), have a slender and very short beak. 

 They are extremely lively little birds, and may be constantly seen 

 darting from branch to branch in short flights, climbing and sus- 

 pending themselves in all sorts of positions, plucking the seeds upon 

 which they feed. They also eat many insects, and do not spare small 

 birds when they find them enfeebled by 'sickness or entangled in 



FlG. 352. LONG-TAILKD TIT AND NEST. 



snares ; they may be often seen to pierce their skulls, by repeated 

 strokes of their beak, in order to devour the brains ; they also pick the 

 bones to a skeleton. In proportion to their size, which is very small, 

 these are the boldest of all birds. They attack Owls fiercely. 

 They make their nests in the hollows of old trees, and lay more 

 eggs than any others of the family. 



Dr. Macgillivray records the observations of a friend on a pair of 

 blue Titmice while rearing their young. The parent birds began 

 their labour of love at half-past three o'clock in the morning, and 

 did not leave off till after eight o'clock in the evening, after being 

 almost incessantly engaged for eighteen hours, during which time 

 they returned to their nest 475 times, flying to and from a plantation 

 more than 150 yards from their nest; sometimes they brought at each 

 visit a single caterpillar, sometimes two or three small ones. The 

 number of destructive insects thus killed, while birds are feeding their 

 young, must be astonishing. 



