Birds. 309 



Notes on the Blue Titmouse or Blue Mope, By M. Saul, Esq. 



I 3 





a, b, c. Sections of a tree, showing cavities made by a pair of blue titmice, 

 another pair built their nest. 



d. A stone bottle in which 



Thirty-one species of the titmouse genus are scattered over the 

 globe ; of these eight only are known in our own country.* They are 

 remarkable for ingenuity and boldness, and do much mischief by pick- 

 ing off the buds of fruit-trees. The blue titmouse is a very prolific 

 bird, laying from ten to twenty eggs, of a beautiM white, sprinkled 

 over with delicate rust-coloured spots. They feed for the most part on 

 seeds, fruit and insects, but also occasionally on flesh, and are parti- 

 cularly fond of the brains of other birds, which they get at by cleav- 

 ing the skull with their strong beaks, when they are so fortunate as to 

 find one dead. They are bold, restless birds, and are particularly 

 cruel to birds less than themselves, and often attack and tease others 

 that are three times their own size. In the months of April and May 

 last my attention was attracted by a pair of these birds which had 

 built a nest in an alder tree by the road- side where I had to pass, and 

 the circumstances connected with it were so interesting to myself, 

 that I thought they might prove acceptable to some of the readers of 

 ' The Zoologist.' 



The tree, or rather stump, was about four feet in height and ten inch- 

 es and a half in diameter ; and being covered with ivy, it had a very 



* We are only acquainted with seven species of titmouse : — the great tit {Parus 

 major), the blue tit (P. cceruleus), the crested tit (P. crisiatus), the cole tit (P. ater), the 

 marsh tit (P. palustris), the long-tailed tit (P. caudatua), and the bearded tit (P. hiar- 

 miens)', the two last have been separated as distinct genera, the former under the name 

 of Mecisturay the latter under that of Calamophilus. — Ed. 



