THE SINGING BIRDS. 



313 



they would pause, and not return for intervals of eight or ten minutes ; the food was green 

 caterpillars. 



'•' The Titmouse sixteen times in an hour. 



" The comparative weight consumed was as follows : — 



" A Greenfinch, provided with eighty grains by weight of wheat, in twenty-four hours consumed 

 seventy-nine; but of a thick paste, made of flour, eggs, &c, it consumed upwards of one hundred 

 grains. 



" A Goldfinch consumed about ninety grains of Canary seed in twenty four hours. 



the great tit (Pants major). 



" Sixteen Canaries consumed at the average rate of one hundred grains each in twenty-four 

 hours. 



" The consumption of food by these birds, compared with the weight of their bodies, was about 

 one-sixth ; which, supposing a man to consume food in the same proportion to his weight, would 

 amount to about twenty-five pounds for every twenty-four hours." 



The nest, which is formed of moss and wool, lined with hair, is placed in a hole in a wall, or 

 the hollow of a tree, or sometimes on the ground, in cavities among the exposed roots, at the mouth 

 of some burrow. The eggs are from six to eight in number, and are white, spotted with pale red. 



The BLUE TITS represent a group that have been separated from those mentioned above on 

 account of the unusual shortness of their much-curveu beak and the peculiar coloration of their 

 [il 11 mage. 



vol. 11. — 79 



