220 CLASS AVES. 



it will pass the night hooked by the claws to the ceiling of its 

 prison. It even delights to perform this manoeuvre during 

 the day-time. It makes its nest in the trunk of a tree, and 

 uses abundance of feathers in the composition of it. It there 

 deposits a great number of eggs, some say, from ten to two- 

 and-twenty, while others make them only from six to ten. 

 These eggs are white, according to some naturalists ; but M. 

 Meyer says they are of a reddish white, spotted and marked 

 with red and brown. The great quantity of eggs, indicates 

 that the bird has but one brood during the year, unless dis- 

 turbed, and the second is then always less numerous. It is 

 very easy to make the fem.ale renounce the care of her eggs, 

 even when the young are actually formed. It is sufficient to 

 touch or break a single one. But from the moment the 

 young are disclosed, she manifests the greatest attachment to 

 them, and the greatest courage in their defence. When these 

 titmice are disturbed in their hole, they make an unpleasant 

 grinding noise. They have also several other cries, either of 

 appeal or terror, and a simple sort of song, without much 

 variety, which is never heard but in spring. As soon as the 

 young family can fly, they join with the parents, and quit the 

 woods, where they have sojourned during the summer, and 

 spread themselves through orchards and gardens, and fre- 

 quently voyage in company with the great titmouse. The 

 blue titmice, however, remain a longer time assembled to- 

 gether than the others. But from the month of January they 

 are never seen but in couples. Those which are taken adult 

 do not refuse the food which is offered them, and even grow 

 familiar with their prison, if it be sufficiently large, and 

 little holes be left where they can conceal themselves at 

 pleasure, and pass the night. But they almost always perish 

 at the end of winter. 



The Long-tailed Titmouse (Parus Caudatus) rarely quits 

 tlie woods during summer, but in winter approaches habita- 



