68 



HABITS OF THE BEARDED TIT. 



the utmost of his power to call them up ; and then sometimes, when 

 all his efforts are unavailing, and he can brook solitude no longer, he 

 decends, and struts amongst his companions chuckling with pleasure 

 at being again in their society. He is amazingly and almost un- 

 ceasingly active, insomuch that it is frequently difficult to obtain even 

 a momentary view of his lovely plumage. His movements also are 

 remarkably light and elegant, and bear a curious resemblance to those 

 of the monkeys in the large cage in the Zoological Gardens ; a resem- 

 blance not altogether fanciful, as it has been remarked by several 

 persons. Like the monkeys, he often hangs by one leg from the top 

 of the cage, and looks around him : but perhaps many of these traits 

 are chiefly owing to the large size and convenient form of the cage 

 he inhabits ; and it is as well always to have an eye to such circum- 

 stances when describing the manners of birds in captivity, their habits 

 being often affected by the peculiar form of the cage in which they 

 may chance to be confined. Thus, an ox-eye (Parus major, Ray,) 

 that is imprisoned in a small cage, will amuse by the curious manner 

 in which he turns himself around the perches; and the babillard, 

 (Curruca garrula, BitissoN,)or nettle-creeper, as it is commonly called 

 in this part of the country, has also a very remarkable manner of 

 throwing back the head when in a small cage; but in neither instance 

 are these manoeuvres observable when the bird is allowed sufficient 

 room to fly about. 



The Bearded Tits have a curious habit of scratching each other's 

 polls in the manner of parrots ; and the individual which I have been 

 describing, not having a companion of his own species, has actually 

 contrived to teach one of his fellow-prisoners, a siskin, to do so with him. 



This species frequently places one foot upon its food, while it picks 

 it to pieces with its bill ; and this, to a casual observer, might probably 

 be considered as indicative of its resemblance to the tits ; but even in 

 this habit he assimilates more to the shrikes. I have seen the flusher 

 {L. Collurio) place its foot upon its food in precisely the same 

 manner while devouring it ; but the tits usually hold their food with 

 both feet in a peculiar way, and break it with reiterated knocks of the 

 bill ; and the large species (P. Major) has thus sufficient power even 

 to break a nut. The Bearded Tit, however, has not any notion of ham- 

 mering at a seed, nor could he succeed in this even were he to attempt 

 it, his beak not being formed fpr such labour ; but I have frequently 

 seen him sit in patient expectation by the side of a tit that was so 

 employed, and as soon as the seed was broken endeavour to make off 

 with the prize : this trick has so often been successfully practised by 



