206 BRITISH BIRDS. 



This busy little bird is seen frequently in our 

 gardens and orchards, where its operations are 

 much dreaded by the over anxious gardener, who 

 fears, that in its pursuit after its insect food, which 

 is often lodged in the tender buds, it may destroy 

 them also, to the injury of the future harvest, not 

 considering that it is the means of destroying a 

 much more dangerous enemy (the caterpillar), 

 which it finds there: it has likewise a strong pro- 

 pensity to flesh, and is said to pick the bones of 

 such small birds as it can master, as clean as 

 skeletons. The female builds her nest in holes of 

 walls or trees, which she lines well with feathers : 

 she lays from fourteen to twenty w r hite eggs spotted 

 Avith red. If her eggs should be touched, or one of 

 them be broken, she forsakes her nest and builds 

 again, but otherwise makes but one hatch in the 

 year. This bird is distinguished above all the rest 

 of the Titmice by its rancour against the Owl . 



