CAGE AND SINGINCt BIRDS. 
aviaiy, and they require plenty of insect food mixed with it, 
such as meal-worms, grasshoppers, and small beetles, to 
which they are very partial. An ordinary lark's cage is 
best for this bird, which does not dust its plumage, but 
•gprmkles it with water taken up in its beak. It is not a 
good songster, but an amusing bird, and remarkaoly neat 
and clean in its habits. In confinement it sings from Febi'u- 
ary to July 
TITS. 
These are all small birds, some of them not more than 
four inches in length, the largest scarcely so big as the house 
sparrow. They are mostly insectivorous ; but do occasion- 
ally feed on seeds, flesh, and various other substances. 
Woods and thickets are their favourite haunts ; but severe 
weather often drives them into the vicinity of human habita- 
tions : hence, it may be mferred, that they are not migra- 
tory. There are no more active, lively birds than the little 
tomtits, as they are commonly called; and in hunting for 
insects among the trees, they assume all sorts of strange 
attitudes. Their flight is bold and rapid, and their natural 
cries shrill and unmusical ; some of them, however, turn out 
pretty good songsters in confinement, and on this account, as 
well as for their beauty of plumage, and lively engaging 
manners, they are valued as cage birds. 
THE OX-EYE, 
Or greater tit, may be considered as the chief of the family. 
It is abundant in the wooded districts of this country, where 
its shrill notes may be heard at the distance of half a mile. 
It has gay party-coloured plumes of black, blue, yellow, 
and white, well befitting such a harlequin of a bird. Its nest 
is made in any hollow or cavity that comes to hand ; it must 
be tolerably deep, and is usually high up from the ground ; 
if one cannot be found suitable for the purpose, the bird will 
make or enlarge a hole in the decayed trunk of a tree, and 
xnere deposit its eggs, about six in number, o^" a bluish 
vrnite, spotted with reddish brown. Moss, leaves, shreds of 
bark, woo), hair, and feathers^ form the materials of the nest* 
