BIRDS 107 



in a cottage wall, a freshly-painted pump, a letter-box, or a 

 cranny in the church tower, are all eligible sites ; but the Great 

 Tit on the whole perhaps is rather more partial to tree holes 

 than the Blue Tit. Public opinion appears to be divided as to 

 whether the Great Tit really inflicts much injury on hive-bees. 

 A man named Camm, of Keswick, wrote to T. C. Heysham in 

 1835 : 'We have got a bird which we call a Bee-eater, owing to 

 the Bird Beeing a great destroyer of that insect.' 



BRITISH COAL TITMOUSE. 



Parus britannicus, Sharpe and Dresser. 



Wherever extensive plantations of coniferous timber are 

 found, the Coal Titmouse asserts a numerical superiority over 

 the other members of the genus. It is numerous, for example, 

 in the woods which extend over Penrith Beacon, and follows 

 the young firs up the sides of the fells : its distribution depends 

 on the relative abundance or scarcity of the food-supply, and 

 not perceptibly on altitude. During the colder months of the 

 year the Coal Tit often joins company with allied species, and 

 shares in the feasts of cocoa-nuts and other dainties which some 

 good souls remember to hang around their window-sills for the 

 benefit of the giddy sprites, that hang with heads towards the 

 ground in every variety of attitude. 



MARSH TITMOUSE. 



Parus pahistris, L. 



The Marsh Titmouse is much the most local of the family in 

 Lakeland ; not that it can be termed rare, but rather that it 

 does not enjoy the ubiquity of hardier species. At one time or 

 another this Tit has occurred to me in most of the more 

 sheltered districts; for example, on the mosses in Furness, in 

 the Windermere woods and those of Penrith. Nor is it absent 

 from the more open parts of the country, since a few small flocks 

 visit the open country of the English Solway in the winter time. 

 As a nesting bird the Marsh Tit is far less common ; yet a fair 

 sprinkling of pairs appear to breed every year in Lakeland. 



