302 THE GREAT TITMOUSE. 



of pale buff. The legs and toes are brown with a decided orange tinge, and the beak is 

 dark brown. The total length of the bird is nearly six inches. 



The Alpine Accentoe {Accentor Alpinus) is another British representative of this 

 group. 



Several specimens of this bird have been killed in England, but it is an extremely rare 

 visitant to this country, and is hardly entitled to take rank as a true British bird. The 

 countries where it is usually found are Italy, France, Germany, and several other parts 

 of Europe. It is a mouutain-loving bird, seldom descending to the level of the plains 

 except during the stormy months of winter. It can readily be distinguished from the 

 ordinary Accentor by the throat, which is white spotted with black, and by the chestnut- 

 black and white streaks upon the wing-coverts. The Alpine Accentor is larger than its 

 British relative, being six inches and a half in total length, and its blue-green eggs are 

 larger than those of that bird. 



The group of birds which are distinguished by the name of Parince, or Titmice, are 

 easily recognisable, having all a kind of family resemblance which guards the observer 

 from mistaking them for any other bird. They are all remarkable for their strong, stout 

 little beaks, the boldly defined colour of the plumage, and the quick irregularity of their 

 movements. They are all insect-eaters, and are remarkably fond of the fat of meat, by 

 means of which, used as a bait, they can often be caught. Their feet and claws, though 

 shght and apparently weak, are really extremely strong, enabling the bird to traverse the 

 boughs with great rapidity, and to cling suspended from the branches. 



The first example of these birds is the Geeat Titmouse, an inhabitant of England and 

 many parts of Europe. 



It does not migrate, finding a sufficiency of winter food in its native land. During 

 the summer it generally haunts the forests, gardens, or shrubberies, and may be seen 

 hopping and running about the branches of the trees in a most adroit manner, searching for 

 insects, and occasionally stocking them out of their hiding-places by sharp blows of the 

 bill. The beak of the Great Titmouse is, although so small, a very formidable one, for the 

 creature has often been known to set upon the smaller birds, and to kill them by repeated 

 blows on the head, afterwards pulling the skull to pieces, and picking out the brains. 



During the winter the Great Titmouse draws near to human habitations, and by 

 foraging among the barns and outhouses, seldom fails in discovering an ample supply 

 of food. Mr. White has recorded a curious instance of the ingenuity displayed by this 

 species while searching for food. " 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." In very severe winters, the birds will even carry away the barley 

 and oat straws from the ricks. 



Mudie, in his "British Birds," writes as follows on the same subject : "When the 

 house flies become languid in the autumn, the Tits capture them in vast numbers, and 

 when insects fail, they make prizes of the autumnal spiders. In the dead season, when 

 insect life is chiefly in the egg, though they hunt for the eggs with great diligence, yet 

 they do not find in them a sufficient supply of food. At that time they pick up nuts, 

 acorns, and the capsular fruit of other trees, hold them in their claws, and hammer away 

 with their bill till the hardest shell or toughest capsule is opened. They also eat the 

 seeds of grasses, especially those that are of an oily nature, and of such size that they can 

 hold them with their foot and pick them open, for they do not grind or bruise with the 

 edge of the bill. They feed greedily upon carrion, and when they come upon other birds in 

 a benumbed and exhausted state, they despatch and eat them, first breaking and emptying 

 the skull. 



Wlien the snow lies heavy on the ground, they approach houses, and hunt about for 

 any offal that may come in their way. They sometimes draw straws from cornstacks, 

 but they do that much more rarely than some of the birds which feed more exclusively 

 upon vegetable matters. Wliile engaged in these labours, they continue repeating their 



