GREAT TITMOUSE. 



37 



mquer a bird they always pierce a hole in the 

 skull and eat the brains, v^^hich they will also do, 

 if they find one that has recently died : they are 

 very partial to flesh, particularly fat, which they 

 eat with the greatest avidity: their principal food 

 consists of insects, which they obtain in the spring 

 by biting off the opening buds*, and in the summer 

 by searching in cracks and crevices of trees. 



These birds are found over all parts of th^^.^ld 

 world, and many of them throughout the Ame- 

 rican continent and West-Indian islands ; also in 

 New Zealand, and other islands in the Pacific 

 Ocean. 



GREAT TITMOUSE. 

 (Parus major.) 



Pa. mridi'olivaceus suhtus Jiavescens, capite nigro, temporibus 



albis, nucha lutea. 

 Olive-green Titmouse^ beneath yellowish, with the head black, 



temples white, and top of the neck yellowish. 

 Parus major. Lin, Si/st, Nat. I, 341. 3. — Lin, Faun. Suec, 265. 



-^Gmel. St/St. Nat. 1. lOOd.-^Lath, Ind. Orn. 2. 562. 1.— 



^m5. 3.539. 1. 



La grosse Mesange, ou Charbonniere. Buf. Hist. Nat. Ois. 5. 



392. 17.— Buf. PL Enl. 3,f, i. 

 Great Titmouse. Penn, Brit, Zool. I. l62. — Penn. Arct, Zool. 



2. 425. A.-^Albin. I, 46.— Lath. Gen. Syn, 4. 536. \.-^Be- 



ioick. Brit, Birds. 1. 237. ---Mont. Brit. Birds. 2.— Don. Brit. 



Birds. 1. 16,—Lemn, Brit. Birds, 3, 121. — Hayes, Brit. Birds, 



t. 33. 



* By doing which they are in fact beneficial, and not, as is 

 generally supposed, detrimental to the horticulturist. 



