204 PARID.E. 



sugar. Confined in the same cage with this bird were some other 

 species, and among them a redbreast, which it sometimes annoyed 

 so much as to bring upon its head severe chastisement. A 

 favourite trick was to pull the feathers out of its fellow prisoners. 

 The young willow wren already alluded to was sadly tormented in 

 this way. A similar attempt was even made on a song thrush 

 introduced to its domicile, but it was successfully repelled. This 

 mischievous tit escaped out of doors several times, but always 

 returned without being sought for. 



The blue titmouse, as is well known, sometimes chooses singular 

 places for its nest. An ornamental jar in the green-house at Elm 

 Park, near Dublin, was selected in the spring of 1844, though 

 the aperture through which the birds had to pass, to reach its 

 roomy portion, seemed hardly large enough to admit them ; they 

 flew into and out of the jar, regardless of persons being present. 



Mr. Poole too remarks : " A jar which I placed in a horizontal 

 position on my window-stool was in a few days tenanted by a pair 

 of blue tits, who after cleaning out some rubbish of which they 

 did not approve, have set hard to work to manufacture a snug 

 abode for themselves and progeny. The cock blue tit came one 

 morning to feed the hen with a fly at a time, when she had a 

 bunch of materials for her nest in her mouth. She quickly dropped 

 them, however, and received the proffered morsel with every ap- 

 pearance of gratification at her mate's gallant attention. May 1st : 

 the blue tits at my window-stool are very early risers, indeed 

 generally commencing the labours of the day as soon as light sets 

 in, and consequently long before the sun appears. The cock at 

 first paid little attention to his mate in her labours, farther than 

 by holding himself ready and willing for a fight with any strange 

 birds of his own species that might venture too near his sanctuary 

 — at the commencement another pair used frequently to contest 

 possession — but eventually was very assiduous in feeding her. 

 He came frequently at intervals of half a minute with a fly or cater- 

 pillar, and inserting his head at the neck of the jar delivered it to 

 his patient mate. 



"In the breeding season I have frequently seen blue tits 



