THE TITMICE 263 



between them, having spoilt this year a large number of 

 lovely Irish peach apjoles, from which nothing for long at 

 a time could frighten them away." 



But, he adds, the small amount of harm M'hich Tits do 

 is all noticed " because they attack our carefully watched 

 ripening fruit and a few garden seeds." Whereas the 

 great good they do passes too often unobserved because 

 the insects on which they prey are so extremely tiny. It 

 is the insect-infested blossom and fruit that attract the 

 busy little birds. " Titmice, to the best of my belief," he 

 concludes, "never play havoc with sound fruit." 



In Germany they have such a good opinion of the use- 

 fulness of this bird and his cousins that in a new Act of 

 Parliament which has been framed for the better protection 

 of birds the Titmouse is expressly mentioned as one of 

 three kinds of birds which are to be protected all the year 

 round. 



Like the robin, and like his own cousin the Great Tit, 

 the Blue-cap is a most determined little fighter. I do 

 not know whether the name once given him by country 

 boys — " Billy Biter " — has died out, but it arose from the 

 frequency with which the mischievous village urchin got 

 his fingers nipped by the parent bird when they reached 

 up to rob the nest. The loud hissing or spitting noise 

 made by this bird when nest or eggs are threatened is 

 enough to daunt any but the hardened stealer. 



The Blue Tit has a little song, but it is very slight, and 

 only heard by those who are on the watch for such sounds 

 in lane and wood. 



The Great Tit is the largest of the clan, so far as the 

 British Isles are concerned, and, like his blue-headed 

 cousin, he has a habit of nesting in odd places. There are, 

 or used to be, at the South Kensington Museum, several 



