TITMICE. 
Ill 
which is almost as minute as the golden-crowned wren :* but the 
blue titmouse, or nun (parus cceruleusj, the cole-mouse (parus 
Blue Titmouse. Cole Titmouse^ 
aterj, the great black-headed titmouse (fringillago), and the 
marsh titmouse (parus palustrisj, all resort, at times, to buildings ; 
and in hard weather particularly. The great titmouse, driven by- 
stress of weather, much frequents houses, and, in deep snows, I 
have seen this bird, while it hung with its back downwards (to 
my no smaU delight and admiration), draw straws lengthwise 
from out the eaves of thatched houses, in order to pull out the 
flies that were concealed between them, and that in such numbers 
that they quite defaced the thatch, and gave it a ragged appear- 
ance.f 
The blue titmouse or nun, is a great frequenter of houses, and 
a general devourer. Besides insects, it is very fond of flesh ; 
for it frequently picks bones on dunghills : it is a vast admirer 
* This curious little bird, which Dr. Leach first separated from the genus parus, proposing for 
it the appellation mecistura, and which ] would designate by the vernacular term *' muffiin," by 
which in some parts it is provincially known, naming 
it the rose-mufflin {mecistura rosea) y from its predomi- 
nant tint, is very distinct in its characters from the 
tits, with which it has been commonly associated, and 
in fact I know of no species to which it is very closely 
allied. In many parts of England it is called bottle- 
tit," and is well known for the beauty and exquisite 
construction of its large doomed nest, which cannot be 
sufficiently admired, and which itself is a character in 
which it differs from the true pari, all of which nidifi- 
cate in holes. The rose-mufflin is very common 
throughout the lowland districts of Britain, and feeds Mufflin. 
exclusively on small insects, in their different stages, which it finds about the twigs and branches 
of trees, the tits being, on the contrary, remarkably omnivorous in their diet, indeed more so 
than any other small birds we have ; they are in fact miniatures of the jay and other corvine 
genera, which they resemble even in the habit of hiding their superfluities of food, and in making 
great use of the foot to hold what they are picking to pieces, being thus enabled to pierce holes 
in the hard husks of seeds, by quickly repeated sharp knocks of the bill, through which they ex- 
tract the kernel. The rose-mufflin, however, has not the least notion of thus using its foot; and 
indeed the form of the foot, the make of the bill, its texture of plumage, and in short all its 
characters are quite distinct from the genus parus- — Ed. 
t I have taken grains of wheat from the stouiach of this species. — Ed. 
