BLYTH ON BRITISH TITS. 



269 



on a common, also, wherever a few trees are scattered, the Cole Tit is 

 generally to be heard ; and in inclosed situations, where a few oaks or 

 elms grow out of the hedge, there the Ox-eye is generally abundant. 

 Neither, however, are by any means confined to the above situations ; 

 these are merely their most favourite respective haunts ; and if a speci- 

 men of either kind were wanted, it might always, with a tolerable 

 degree of certainty, be procured in the above-mentioned localities. 



In gardens, as soon as the sunflower seeds begin to ripen, the three 

 Black-headed Tits always make their appearance in great numbers ; I 

 have never known the blue species to touch the seeds of the sunflower, 

 but the three others are extremely partial to them : this is the best 

 time to catch them for confinement, which may be very easily done in 

 almost any sort of trap, baited with a meal-worm or insect of any kind. 

 The young Cole and Marsh Tits of the year become quite familiar 

 almost immediately after they are caught, and may be fed on hempseed, 

 or sunflower seeds ; the Marsh Tit is also fond of canary seeds, which 

 the other species do not touch. The Blue Tit will not feed on any of 

 these seeds, but requires the same kind of food as is usually given to 

 the warblers, and other soft-billed birds. All the species are fond of 

 pieces of almond and hazelnut ; and also of suet, but should not have 

 much of the latter given to them, lest they become sickly. In. the wild 

 state the large species feed much upon corn, swallowing it whole ; but 

 they will seldom touch this food in confinement, unless very hungry. 

 It is amusing to observe two or three of the Black-headed Tits when 

 they are hammering their hempseed in confinement ; a person that did 

 not see them would imagine, from the noise they make, that they heard 

 a number of carpenters at work. The autumn also is, I think, the 

 best time to procure these birds in fine plumage for stuffing ; they have 

 then just completed their annual change of plumage, and may at that 

 time occasionally be met with beautifully clean ; the plumage of the 

 Tits being generally, when wild, very much soiled with dirt, as is the 

 case with the treecreeper, woodpeckers, nuthatch, and most other birds 

 which creep or clamber much about the dirty branches of trees. The 

 Ox-eye, however, is an exception ; the plumage of that species being, 

 generally, remarkably clean and unworn ; the very reverse of the three 

 others, which are sometimes, during the winter months, so disfigured 

 with dirt, th^t their markings are hardly discernible. 



Tooting, Surrey, May 18, 1833. 



