266 



BLYT1I ON BRITISH TITS. 



intimate knowledge of their manners : this, indeed, is the more remark- 

 able, as the Large and the Blue Tits are, I think, generally rather 

 the most familiar when wild. It is, however, worthy of remark, that 

 most of those birds, which when at liberty are tame and familiar, and 

 partial to the vicinity of man, are, of all others, when placed in a cage, 

 the wildest and most un tractable ; of this^the robin-red-breast and the 

 common house-sparrow may be adduced as striking examples. None 

 of the tits, however, are at all shy when at liberty, and perhaps the 

 reason that the Blue and Great Tits appear more familiar than the other 

 species when wild, is, that they usually frequent the neighbourhood of 

 dwelling-houses more than the Marsh and the Cole Tits commonly do. 

 The large and the blue species ought, perhaps, for confinement, to be 

 brought up from the nest, and then, possibly, they may become tame 

 and familiar in the cage. 



Much has been said respecting the carnivorous, or rather predacious 

 propensities of the Tits : I think, however, I may confidently assert that 

 the Cole and Marsh Tits are innocent of the charge ; although Wilson, 

 speaking of the American Black Cap Tit (P. atricapillus, a species 

 very closely resembling our Marsh Tit), says, " These birds sometimes 

 fight violently with each other, and are known to attack young and 

 sickly birds, that are incapable of resistance, always directing their 

 blows against the skull." Birds of almost every kind are very pug- 

 nacious at the breeding season, and none more so than the minute gold- 

 crested Regulus, as I lately had an opportunity of witnessing ; Bottle 

 Tits also fight desperately in the spring, but I have never noticed any of 

 the four species which form the subject of this paper, to be particularly 

 quarrelsome at any season of the year. With respect to the Ox-eye 

 (P. major), I have known some individuals to live in the greatest 

 harmony with other birds ; one I kept for many months in a cage 

 full of warblers, without his ever showing the least indication of 

 hostility ; but I have, nevertheless, known others of this same species to 

 be complete birds of prey, killing and devouring even their own kind, 

 and plucking off the feathers of their victim before devouring it, in the 

 manner of a regular predacious bird. Mr. Selby, also, has seen 

 P. major eat young birds. I have never known the Blue Tit evince 

 these sanguinary propensities; but if the cruel experiment of M. 

 Hebert (of placing a robin in a cage containing several Ox-eyes), were 

 to be tried on the Blue Tits, substituting of course some smaller bird for 

 a victim, I think it not improbable that some individual out of the 

 number would be found to show a similar ferocity. Mr. Selby, indeed, 



