28 



Titmice. 



The crested tit, Partes cristatus, is a pretty little bird, but it 

 is scarce and decreasing in numbers. It feeds upon insects 

 and weed seeds, and should for this reason be carefully pre- 

 served. Yarrell, Seebohm, and Harting remark upon the rarity 

 of this bird. 



The coal-tit, Paries afer> though somewhat common, is 

 not so well known as the great tit and the blue tit, since it is 

 not domesticated and lives in woods, copses, and shrubberies 

 distant from houses. It is frequently found in birch and 

 pine woods. "Birch woods," says Seebohm, " are the 

 favourite haunts of this bird during the breeding season, 

 where the abundance of holes suitable for nesting purposes is 

 probably the chief attraction." 



The coal-tit is as great a destroyer of insects as the other 

 members of the same family, and should be vigorously pre- 

 served. Yarrell, in writing of this bird, says that like the 

 blue tit it is constantly in motion, roving from tree to 

 tree in active search for those small insects and the seeds of 

 various evergreens upon which it principally exists. 



The coal-tit is rather more than four inches long. Its 

 general colour is bluish grey, with a dull white breast, and it 

 may be distinguished from the marsh tit, which it somewhat 

 resembles in colour and size, by a large white patch on the 

 back of the neck and by white spots on the wings. It 

 usually makes its nest in holes in tress and stumps of trees ; 

 but Lord Lilford says that he has always found the nests in 

 burrows and holes in the earth made by rabbits and other 

 animals. 



The marsh-tit [Parus palnstris) is not so common as the 

 species just described, and is of rather smaller size. It is 

 occasionally seen in gardens and orchards, principally in the 

 winter, but its chief habitations are low-lying meadows and 

 damp situations, where it nests in holes in old willow- 

 trees and other trees, pollards, and stumps, very close to the 

 ground. It is insectivorous. Yarrell states that it is also 

 partial to the seeds of the thistle. 



According to Seebohm it may be seen in almost every con- 

 ceivable position searching for insects on the buds at the end 

 of a branch. It is slightly smaller than the coal- tit, its head 



