LXXVI. 

 PARUS C.ERULKUS. (linn.) 



Blue Titmouse, Bluecap, Tomtit, Billy-biter. 



The Titmice, the eggs of three species of which are figured 

 in the annexed plate, are amongst the most familiar of our 

 feathered friends ; they are with us the year through, and 

 when our other truant visitors have forsaken us for brighter 

 skies, draw nearer to our dwellings, closely prying into every 

 corner, and clearing our fruit trees of innumerable insects, 

 affording us constant amusement by their unceasing gaiety 

 and activity, and by their ever varying and elegant attitudes ; 

 they are the mountebanks of the feathered race ; every hour 

 of their little lives is spent in constant usefulness, and for our 

 benefit, notwithstanding which, they are by many considered 

 as a nuisance, and no pains spared to destroy them ; there 

 are parishes, even in which a price is set upon their heads, 

 and paid for their destruction, under a delusion, which I am 

 happy to say is, with many such absurdities, speedily vanish- 

 ing. Why they are thus persecuted, it is difficult to guess ; 

 I much doubt whether their great services are accompanied 

 with any harm to us ; their progress in a garden may ap- 

 pear to the owner to be strewed with buds, the future hopes 

 of his industry ; these are, however, but the infected part of 

 his trees, and have been carefully examined and pulled to 

 pieces by these little birds to destroy the lurking enemy 

 within, which, if permitted to multiply unchecked, would 

 soon defoliate his trees. 



The Blue Titmouse, by far the most numerous of the race, 

 and to which what I have said chiefly refers, is a most ob- 

 stinate little fellow ; and when he has once taken possession 

 of a hole for his nest, will bravely defend it, not only against 

 the inroads of other birds, but against our intrusion ; no 



