436 JOURNAL OF THE royal horticultural society. 



Miss Ormerod mentions it eating larvaa of Tipula oleracea (leather- 

 jacket), Athalia spinarum (turnip sawfly), and Plutella maculipennis. 



Blue Tit : Parus coertiletcs. 



The blue titmouse is a common resident, and generally distributed 

 throughout the greater part of the British Islands. It has been stated 

 that its numbers are largely augmented in autumn by the arrival of 

 flocks from the Continent, but they do not appear to be among the birds 

 picked up at lighthouses of which a record is kept. 



Yarrell says the blue tit has no time for singing, but talks much ; is 

 an insect feeder, its diet consisting of caterpillars, scale insects, woolly 

 aphis, and the eggs of other insects, including those of the sawfly. It 

 damages apples and pears by pecking a hole near the stalk. It pulls 

 half-expanded apple and pear bloom to pieces, presumably for insects. 

 The blue tit lays from six to nine eggs. The young are fed almost 

 entirely on caterpillars, mostly collected in fruit trees. Macgillivray in 

 his "British Birds" mentions a pair of blue tits that brought food to 

 their young 475 times in one day. No bird is said to sit closer, be 

 bolder in the defence of its nestlings, or more indefatigable in feeding 

 them, the foraging for food going on in wet or dry weather. The blue 

 tit is very fond of maize, sunflower seed, and fat, and is very spiteful if 

 trapped ; hence its name of " billy biter." The blue tit will often enter a 

 vinery and spoil grapes. 



Brown Linnet : Linota cannabina. 



This sweet singer is found very destructive to radish and cabbage 

 seed, and in the districts where these are grown for seed this bird is 

 found to be too numerous. Gorse bushes form a favourite nesting place ; 

 four to six eggs are laid, and sometimes a second brood is reared. 



In autumn and winter brown linnets assemble in flocks on stubble 

 and open ground. They are said to prefer soft seeds, especially those 

 containing oil, such as flax and hemp ; the seeds of charlock and knotgrass 

 are also largely consumed, while in winter various kinds of berries and 

 often oats are devoured. 



Mr. F. V. Theobald says the linnet is a great nuisance on farms ; out 

 of thirty examined all contained vegetable seeds and no insects. 



In East Kent this bird is seldom seen in winter. 



Gkeat Tit : Parus major. 



The great titmouse is generally distributed, but is nowhere found in 

 numbers ; it is rather a solitary bird, only seen in pairs in summer ; 

 it has strong beak and feet, and, like the blue tit, is a skilled gymnast ; 

 it is not quite as common as the latter, but, like it, attacks apples and 

 pears. Rev. Henry Slater says they eat walnuts and filberts.* They also 

 peck buds ; but as these frequently contain insects, little real damage is 

 done to the tree by them. 



* " Wild Birds on the Farm," an excellent paper on the subject read before the 

 Farmers' Club in April 1005. 



