The Long-tailed Tit. 33 



The young Accentors are very easily reared on soaked bread 

 and poppy seed moistened with milk, or buckwlieat flour made 

 into a paste. The plumage of the young brood is very different 

 from that of their parents; the breast being spotted with grey 

 and yellow, and the back with brown and black, while the 

 nostrils and angles of the mouth are rose-coloured. 



There is, perhaps, not one of our native birds that breeds 

 so freely in the aviary as this: the solitary female will lay 

 eggs or pair with a cock 'Eobin, and bring up a family of 

 mules. 



I once caught an adult female, one of .whose wings had 

 been injured, and she soon, vpithout any particular notice on 

 my part, became so tame, that when I turned her out after 

 her recovery from the effects of her accident, I could not 

 drive her away from the house: finding she would not go 

 away, I let her do as she pleased, and she remained in the 

 garden for some months, coming to the kitchen window every 

 morning to be fed: she disappeared at last, whether killed 

 by a oat, or impelled by the desire to make a nest, I cannot 

 say: I never saw her again. 



In the matter of diseases I do not know of any incidental 

 to this species; those I have kept at different times always 

 seemed very strong and healthy. Bechstein, however, asserts 

 that they are, even when wild, subject to a pustular disorder 

 resembling small-pox ! If so, I have not met with an instance 

 of such a complaint among them. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE LONG-TAILED TIT. 



THIS pretty little bird, which some writers on ornithology 

 class with the Wrens, is not very common in England, 

 but is sufficiently so in wooded districts, especially pine woods, 



D 



