BLYTH ON BRITISH TITS. 



265 



Tits ever conceal their food in the manner thus detailed of the two 

 other species ; I have little doubt but that they occasionally may, but 

 they certainly are not in the constant habit of doing so, as the Cole and 

 Marsh Tits are. The two latter are usually of a much tamer and more 

 familiar disposition than the others, and I have consequently been 

 enabled to obtain a more perfect insight into their habits. Nothing 

 can exceed the familiarity of the Cole and Marsh Tits that I have kept 

 in confinement ; their sagacity is astonishing in such little creatures, 

 and their manners are highly interesting and amusing. 



The Marsh Tit, in confinement, is in constant motion the whole day ; 

 he is extremely fond of flying loose about the room, but generally 

 returns to his cage in a few minutes ; his curiosity seems unbounded, 

 and is extremely remarkable : the Cole Tit, also, never fails to take 

 notice of any thing new, but he is by no means so curious and prying 

 as the Marsh Tit. The wings of the Cole Tit are considerably shorter, 

 and more rounded, than those of the Marsh Tit, and he is accordingly 

 much quicker in his movements ; so nimble indeed at times as even to 

 elude the eye ; but then he cannot so well sustain a protracted flight, 

 nor is he so restlessly active as the other, and after a few minutes' play, 

 he is always obliged to rest himself a little : at such times sooner than 

 move, he will even allow himself to be pushed along with the hand, 

 opening his bill at the aggressor, but rarely attempting to peck. They 

 seem both extremely fond of taking food from the hand, and at the 

 approach of any person, both would generally cling to the wires of their 

 cage, in hopes that something would be given to them. If the finger 

 and thumb were held to the Marsh Tit, and he was disappointed at 

 finding nothing, he generally took care to signify his displeasure by 

 giving two or three hard pecks. All the species in confinement are 

 very partial to bathing, and the Marsh Tit, which I have been describing, 

 was at all times extremely anxious that his companions should all be as 

 beautifully clean as himself. If he perceived a piece of dirt adhering 

 to the feet of any of them, he picked it off; and if one of them, by 

 staying too much at the bottom of the cage, chanced to become a trifle 

 taller, he instantly removed the nuisance in a most adroit and clever 

 manner. It would, in short, require a volume to detail all the curious 

 habits and ways of these two little birds ; indeed, one can hardly ever 

 look at them without observing some curious trait that had previously 

 escaped notice. But it is not so with the Great and the Blue Tits ; 

 I have kept several of each, but they have always been too watchful, 

 too suspicious when being beheld, to permit of my acquiring any very 



