Titmice. 1 



MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE. 



311 



walls and buildings, or in the holes of decayed 

 trees, which it either makes or enlarges with its 

 hard pointed bill, and rapidly accomplishes its task. 

 The nest is placed in an enlarged space at the bottom, 

 and is composed of moss, hair, and feathers. The 

 eggs are six or eight in number, of a white colour 

 spotted with reddish brown. 



The colours of this beautiful species are well con- 

 trasted. The head, throat, and lower part of the 

 neck are black ; the cheeks and ear-coverts white. 

 On the nape of the neck is a spot of white ; back 

 olive-green, passing at the lower part into bluish- 

 grey. Wing-coverts bluish-grey tipped with white. 

 Quill-feathers greenish-grey, as are those of the 

 tail. Under parts sulphur yellow, with a black cen- 

 tral stripe continued from the throat. Bill black ; 

 le^s bluish-grey. In the female the tints are less 

 rich. Length about six inches. 



1404 (6).— The Blue Titmouse 



(Parus cceruleus). Provincial, Tomtit, Nun, Blue- 

 cap, Hickwall, Billy-biter; Le Mesange a fete 

 bleue, Cuvier ; Blaumeise, Bechstein. This beau- 

 tiful little species is very common, and too well 

 known to need a detailed description. It frequents 

 gardens and orchards, and while engaged in its 

 search for insects assumes among the twigs and 

 sprays the most amusingly varied attitudes. It is 

 very fond of flesh, fat, and suet, and we have known 

 it a" regular visitor to pigsties. Gilbert White says 

 that when a boy he has known twenty of these birds 

 caught in a morning, by means of snap mousetraps 

 baited with suet ; we have ourselves often captured 

 it in a common brick trap baited with bits of meat 

 and bread and butter. It is partial to oleaginous 

 seeds, and will feed on those of the sunflower, and 

 also, as White asserts, pick holes in apples left on the 

 ground. Like the preceding species, it will disturb 

 the thatch of buildings in quest of insects, and will 

 even attack other small birds. In winter the Blue 

 Titmouse resorts to stack-yards, where it finds both 

 food and shelter, nestling at night in holes about, 

 the sides or under the thatching of hay or corn 

 stacks, and, as we can personally testify, puffing up 

 its feathers so as to resemble a ball of down. This 

 species lives in holes* of trees or walls, and forms 

 its nest of mosses lined with feathers and hair ; its 

 eggs, from six to eight in number, are white spotted 

 with brown, especially at the larger end (Fig. 1408). 

 These birds resolutely defend their nest against in- 

 truders, and if an attempt be made upon it, bite with 

 great severity, ruffling up their soft full plumage, 

 and hissing like a snake or angry kitten, thereby 

 often deterring the schoolboy from carrying his in- 

 tentions into effect. The call-notes of the Blue 

 Titmouse are confined to a weak chirp and kind of 

 harsh chatter. 



1404 (c).— The Cole-Tit 



( Parus ater, Colemouse) ; La Petite Charbonniere, 

 Buffon ; Tannemeise, Bechstein. The Cole-tit is 

 spread over Europe, particularly where pine-forests 

 abound; in England it is comparatively rare, but 

 in Scotland is very common, frequenting the exten- 

 sive woods and plantations of pine, fir, &c, which 

 seem everywhere to be its favourite if not exclu- 

 sive habitat. In these woods it finds a secure re- 

 treat, and abundance of food, consisting of aphides 

 and the larva? of insects, as well as of seeds and 

 berries. In its quick abrupt movements, its rest- 

 lessness, and its ever-changing attitudes, thia bird 

 resembles the Blue Titmouse ; and it seeks for its 

 food among the branches with the same address. 

 Its call-note in the spring, which resembles that of 

 the greater titmouse, excepting that it is shriller, 

 may be heard incessantly through the solitudes of 

 the woods till the labour of nidification com- 

 mences ; the bird is then silent. The nest is built 

 in the hollow of some decayed tree, and is neatly 

 formed of moss and wool with a lining of hair. Mr. 

 Selby states that, he has sometimes found it on the 

 ground in the entrance of a mouse or mole-hole. 

 The eggs are from six to eight in number, of a white 

 colour spotted with reddish-brown. The Cole-tit is 

 very similar to the blue titmouse in form, but is 

 even less in size, being about four inches in length ; 

 the bill is black, as are the crown and nape of the 

 neck, the latter having a white central spot ; the 

 throat and under part of the neck are also black ; 

 the back is greenish-grey, passing on the lower part 

 into yellowish-grey; the wings and tail are grey; 

 under parts greyish-white ; legs bluish-grey. 



1404 (d).— The Marsh-Tit 



(Parus palustris) ; Mesange nonnette, Temminck ; 

 Sumpfmeise, Bechstein. The Marsh-tit is very like 

 the Cole-tit in form and colouring, but is larger, 

 and has no white mark on the nape of the neck. It 

 is common in the northern parts of England, but is 

 seldom &t.cn in Scotland above Fifeshire, and 

 scarcely ever so far south as London. Although it 

 may be sometimes met with in the woods of dry 

 districts, it is more frequently to be met with among 



the reeds in low marshy tracts, wnere it makes its 

 nest, generally choosing some decayed willow for a 

 foundation. Its food is chiefly insects, but in winter 

 it feeds on seeds, and is often tempted to visit the 

 farm-yard for pieces of meat, which it eats with 

 much avidity ; indeed its appelite is so great, 1hat. 

 it has been known to consume more than half its 

 own weight, of food per day. The Marsh-tit is also 

 known pvovincially as the smaller Ox-eye, Willow- 

 biter, Joe Bout, &c. When their haunts can be ap- 

 proached so as to witness their movements (which 

 is not always an easy matter, as they generally 

 select some long tract of marshy country on the 

 banks of rivers, &c), the observer will be repaid by 

 a very interesting sight. They dwell together in 

 considerable numbers, and are perpetually in motion, 

 going in and out of their nests, feeding their young, 

 flying off in search of food, or seeking for it in the 

 crevices of the neighbouring trees. It is truly gra- 

 tifying to witness their sprightly gambols, and the 

 entertaining positions into which, as it. were in very 

 exuberance of spirit, they are continually throwing 

 themselves. 



This bird is very common in Holland. The nest 

 is composed of moss, mixed with the seed-down of 

 the willow, and lined with a warm coating of the 

 same material. The eggs, six or eight, in number, 

 are spotted with reddish brown, particularly at the 

 larger end. 



Head, nape of neck, and throat ink black ; upper- 

 parts yellowish-grey, wings and tail bluish-grey 

 edged paler; cheeks yellowish white; breast and 

 under parts white, tinged with pale yellowish-brown ; 

 legs bluish-grey. 



The tits we have hitherto described are very ge- 

 nerally to be found in England ; but the Crested Tit 

 (P. cristatus), which we now proceed to notice, is a 

 bird but seldom seen in this country, and very rare 

 throughout Europe. It is distinguishable from fhs 

 other tits by its crest, formed by its occipital feathers 

 being elongated, pointed, and slightly recurved. It 

 is in length about four inches and a half, of a dusky 

 colour, with a black band round the neck ; breast 

 pinkish-white ; feet, of a leaden colour ; and fore- 

 head black. It is common in the woods in the 

 northern part of the middle division of Scotland, 

 but in the other parts of Great Britain it is, as we 

 have said, very lare. In North America, however, 

 it is more frequently found. It is very solitary, very 

 courageous in defending itself audits nest, and is 

 very difficult to tame. Though not strictly migra- 

 tory, it often shifts its quarters, and in severe winters 

 visits the more southern parts of the kingdom. 



1405. — The Black-Cap Titmouse of America 



(Parus atricapillus) ; Mesange a tele noire de 

 Canada, Buffon. Many ornithologists, and among 

 them Temminck, have considered this bird to be 

 identical with the Marsh-titmouse of Europe. It is 

 now, however, universally agreed that the two birds, 

 though nearly allied, are distinct species. 



The Black-cap Titmouse is termed Peechehkees- 

 kseshees by the Cree Indians, and, according to 

 Nut tall, Chicadee by the European colonists. It 

 ranges through the whole width of the American 

 continent from latitude 65° to the southern districts 

 of the United States, being stationary throughout 

 the year. It is one of the most common birds in 

 the fur-countries, a small family inhabiting every 

 thicket. In the United States it is universally dis- 

 tributed. 



" In these countries," says Nuttall (' Man. of 

 Omith. of United States and of Canada'), "families 

 of Chicadees are seen chattering and roving through 

 the woods, busily engaged in gleaning their multi- 

 farious food, along with the Parus bicolor, nut- 

 hatches, and creepers, the whole forming a busy, 

 active, and noisy group, whose manners, food, and 

 habits bring them together in a common pursuit. 

 Their diet varies with the season ; in the month 

 of September they leave the woods and assemble 

 familiarly in our orchards and gardens, and even 

 enter the thronging cities in quest of that support 

 which their native forests now deny them. Large 

 seeds of many kinds, particularly those which are oily, 

 as the sun-flower, and pine, and spruce-kernels, are 

 now sought after. These seeds, in the usual manner 

 of the genus, are seized in the claws and held against 

 the branch until picked open by the bill to obtain 

 their contents. Fat of various kinds is also greedily 

 eaten, and they regularly watch the retreat of the 

 hog-killers, in the country, to glean up the fragments 

 of meat which adhere to the places where the carcasses 

 have been suspended. At times they feed upon the 

 wax of the candle-berry myrtle (M'yrica cerifera) ; 

 they likewise pick up crumbs near the houses, and 

 search the weather-boards and even the window-sills 

 familiarly for their linking prey, and are particularly 

 fond of spiders and the eggs of destructive moths, 

 especially those of the canker-worm, which they 

 greedily destroy in all its stages of existence. It is 

 said that they sometimes attack their own species 

 when the individual is sickly, and aim their blows 



at the skull with a view to eat the brain ; but this 

 barbarity I have never witnessed. In winter, when 

 satisfied, they will descend to the snow-bank be- 

 neath, and quench their thirst by swallowing small 

 pieces ; in this way their various and frugal meal 

 is always easily supplied ; and hardy, and warmly 

 clad in light and very downy feathers, they suffer 

 yevy little inconvenience from the inclemency of 

 the seasons. Indeed in the winter, or about the 

 close of October, they at times appear so enlivened 

 as already to show their attachments, the male ap- 

 proaching his mate with fluttering and vibrating 

 wings; and in the spring season the males have 

 obstinate engagements, darting after each other 

 with great velocity and anger. Their roost, I sus- 

 pect, is in the hollows of decayed trees, where they 

 also breed, laying their eggs merely in the dry 

 rotten wood, without any attempt at a nest. ; these 

 are from six to twelve in number, white with specks 

 of brown-red. They begin to lay about the middle 

 or close of April, and though Ihey commonly make 

 use qf natural or deserted hoies of the woodpecker, 

 yet at times they are said to excavate a cavity for 

 themselves with much labour. The first brood 

 take wing about the 7th or 10th of June, and they 

 have sometimes a second towards the end of July. 

 The young, as soon as fledged, have all the external 

 marks of the adult ; the head is equally black, and 

 they chatter and skip about with all the agility and 

 self-possession of their parents, who appear, never- 

 theless, very solicitous for their safety. From this 

 time the whole family continue to associate to- 

 gether through the autumn and winter. 



The colouring of the black-cap tit is as follows : — 

 Top of the head, back of the neck, and the throat 

 velvet black, a white line from the nostrils through 

 the eye spreads out on the side of the neck ; back 

 lead-coloured, glossed with yellowish-grey; quill 

 and tail-feathers blackish-grey edged with'greyish- 

 white ; under plumage brownish-white ; bill black ; 

 legs bluish. Total length five inches and a half. 



1406, 1407- — The Long-tailed Titmouse 

 (Orites caudata, Moehr) ; Mechistura caudata, Leach ; 

 Parus caudatus, Ray. This species is the Pendo- 

 lino, Paronzino, Codibugnolo, and Paglia in culo of 

 the Italians ; Mesange a la Jongue queue and Perd 

 sa queue of the French; LanschwlLnzige Meise, 

 Schwanzmeise, and Belzmeise Pfannenstiel of the 

 Germans; Staartmeesof the Netherlanders ; Alhtita 

 of the Swedes ; Jenga of the Japanese ; Bottle 

 Tit, Bottle Tom, Long-tailed Farmer, Long-tail 

 Mag, Long-tail Pie, Poke-Pudding, Huckmuck, and 

 Mum-ruffin of the modern British ; and Y Benloyn 

 gnyffonhir of the ancient British. 



The Long-tailed Titmouse is distributed through 

 the whole of Europe and the middle districts of 

 Asia to Japan. It inhabits the British Islands. The 

 food of this pretty bird consists of insects, their 

 eggs and larvae, for which it is in constant search 

 among the branches, displaying the greatest alert- 

 ness and address, hanging in every attitude from 

 the ends of the twigs, and creeping mouse-like 

 round the thicker branches. It is not often that 

 this bird is seen in the immediate vicinity of houses ; 

 and this circumstance did not escape the notice of 

 Gilbert White, who states that, it never retreats for 

 succour in the severest seasons to houses and their 

 neighbourhood. This does not arise from any pecu- 

 liar shyness ; and though it may not resort, like the 

 Blue Titmouse, to the haunts of man for food and 

 shelter in winter, it does not positively avoid them 

 in summer. A writer in the ' Penny Cyclopaedia' 

 says— "We have seen in a nursery- garden in Mid- 

 dlesex a whole family of them within a few yards of 

 the nurseryman's cottage, and close to his green- 

 house, which visitors were constantly entering ; and 

 we have found its exquisitely-wrought, nest in a 

 silver-fir about eight feet high, in a pleasure- 

 ground in the same county, little more than a hun- 

 dred yards from the house." Pennant well describes 

 its appearance in flight when, after stating that the 

 young follow the parents the whole winter, he says, 

 '' From the slimness of their bodies and great length 

 of tail, they appear while flying like so many darts 

 cutting the air. They are often seen passing 

 through our gardens, going progressively from tree 

 to tree, as if on their road to some other place, 

 never making any halt." This progression is re- 

 markable. We have ourselves followed a troop 

 pretty closely, completely round the tall hedge-row 

 of a large field, admiring their quickness and evolu- 

 tions among the twigs and branches. 



The nest of the long-tailed titmouse is a most 

 beautiful and elaborate piece of workmanship, 

 " combining beauty of appearance with security and 

 warmth. In shape it is nearly oval, with one small 

 hole in the upper part of the side, by which the bird 

 enters. I have never seen more than one hole. The 

 outside of this nest sparkles with silver-coloured 

 lichens adhering to a firm texture of moss and wool, 

 the inside profusely lined with soft feathers. The 

 nest is generally placed in the middle of a thick bush, 



