TITMICE. 527 



The Snow Bunting {Plectroplmnes nitalis, Gould) rarely shows 

 itself in France, and Montagu describes them as rare in England, 

 but McGrillivray found them in considerable flocks all over Scotland, 

 from the Outer Hebrides to the Lothians. On the 4th of August, 

 1830, being on the summit of Ben-na-muic-dhu, one of the loftiest 

 mountains in Scotland, he observed a beautiful male flitting about 

 in the neighbourhood of a drift of snow, and some days after, 

 in descending from Lochnagar on a botanising expedition, he 

 noticed a flock of eight individuals flying about among the 

 granite rocks of a corry, evidently a family. "It is, therefore," 

 he thinks, " very probable that it breeds on the higher Grampians." 



The Conirostral Passerines include the family of Paridce, or 

 Tits. The Titmice, as they are sometimes called, are small birds, 

 seldom attaining the size of the Common Sj^arrow. Their general 

 form is moderately full, the head large in proportion, and broadly 

 ovate. Their bill is straight, short, and tapering, furnished with 

 hairs at the base, but their individuality is distinguished by their 

 specific peculiarities rather than by physiognomy. A charac- 

 teristic feature is their audacity, almost ajDproaching to impu- 

 dence, and their courage, the instinctive result of their sociability. 

 These qualities secure for them a well-defined place in the group 

 under consideration. 



Who discovers the Owl during the day? Who besieges him 

 with its clamours ? Who pursues him with unintermitting blows 

 of his bill ? Who rouses the whole tribe of small birds against 

 the nocturnal tyrant ? It is the Titmouse. Bellicose as bird can 

 be, it gives full scope to its most warlike instincts whenever a 

 suitable occasion presents itself, its want of physical power being 

 compensated for by the vigour of its assault. The Tit is, indeed, the 

 incarnation of motion ; it is continually on ' the cjui vive, skipping 

 from branch to branch, at one moment piercing the crevices of 

 the bark with its bill in search of food, the next hanging sus- 

 pended from a branch, to which it clings with its claws, while 

 it picks off the insects which occupy the lower surface of the 

 leaves. 



Nevertheless, it varies its food according to seasons and cir- 

 cumstances. Not only does it devour all kinds of insects, not 

 excepting wasps and bees, but even cereals and fruits. It is 



