WINTER IVREN. 



M3 



approaches nearer to the European wren (M. troglodytes) 

 than any other species we have. Daring his residence here, 

 he frequents the projecting hanks of creeks, old roots, decayed 



remarked, that both, these make suspended nests, the one in woods, of 

 a lengthened form and beautiful workmanship, generally hung near the 

 extremity of a branch belonging to some thick silver, spruce, or Scotch 

 fir ; the other balanced and waving among reeds, like some of the 

 aquatic warblers ; while all the other species, and indeed all those 

 abroad with whose nidification I am acquainted, choose some hollow 

 tree or rent wall for their place of breeding. In a Brazilian species, 

 figured by Temminck, the tail assumes a forked shape. 



Insects are not their only food, though perhaps the most natural. 

 "When the season becomes too inclement for this supply, they become 

 granivorous, and will plunder the farmyards, or eat grain and potatoes 

 with the poultry and pigs. Some I have seen so domesticated (the 

 common blue and greater titmice), as to come regularly during the 

 storm to the windows for crumbs of bread. When confined, they 

 become very docile, and will also eat pieces of flesh or fat. During 

 winter, they roost in holes of trees or walls, eaves of thatched houses, 

 or hay and corn ricks. When not in holes, they remain suspended with 

 the back downwards or outwards. A common blue tomtit (and I have 

 no doubt the same individual) has roosted for three years in the same 

 spot, under one of the projecting capitals of a pillar, by the side of my own 

 front door. The colours of the group are chaste and pleasing, as might 

 have been expected from their distribution. There are, however, one or 

 two exceptions in those figured by M. Temminck, from Africa. The 

 general shades are black, gray, white, blue, and different tints of olive, 

 sometimes reddish brown ; and in these, when the brightest colours 

 occur, the blue and yellow, they are so blended as not to be hard or 

 offensive. Most of the species have some decided marks or colouring 

 about the head, and the plumage is thick and downy and loose — a very 

 necessary requisite to those which frequent the more northern latitudes. 

 Mr Audubon says, that this species sometimes forms a nest, by digging 

 a hole for the purpose in the hardest wood with great industry and per- 

 severance, although it is more frequently contented with the hole of the 

 downy woodpecker, or some other small bird of that genus. We can 

 hardly conceive that the crested titmouse, or indeed any of the race, 

 had sufficient strength to dig its own nest. The bill, though very 

 powerful when compared with the individual's bulk, is not formed on. 

 the principle of those which excavate for themselves. I lately received 

 the nest of this species, taken from some hollow tree. The inside 

 lining was almost entirely composed of the scales and cast-off exuvia 

 of snakes.— Ed. 



