NATURAL HISTORY 
where tliey find fpiders and flies that have laid themfelves up 
during the cold feafon. But the grand fupport of the foft-billed 
birds in winter is that infinite profufion of aureli^ of the lepidoptera 
ordo, which is faftened to the twigs of trees and their trunks ; to 
the pales and walls of gardens and buildings ; and is found in 
every cranny and cleft of rock or rubbilh, and even in the ground 
itfelf. 
Every fpecies of titmoufe winters with us; they have what I 
call a kind of intermediate bill between the hard and the foft, be- 
tween the Linn^an genera of fringilla and motacilla. One fpecies 
alone fpends it's whole time in the woods and fields, never retreat- 
ing for fuccour in the feverefi: feafons to houfes and neighbour- 
hoods ; and that is the delicate long-tailed titmoufe, which is 
almoft as minute as the golden-crowned wren: but the blue tit- 
moufe, or nun (parus carukus), the cole-moufe (par us ater), the 
great black-headed utmou^Q (fringillago), and the marfh titmoufe 
(parus ^alup-'ts), all refort, at times, to buildings; and in hard 
weather particularly. The great titmoufe, driven by ftrefs of 
weather, much frequents houfes ; and, in deep fnows, I have 
feen this bird, while it hung with it's back downwards (to my no 
fmall delight and admiration), draw ftraws lengthwife from out the 
eaves of thatched houfes, in order to pull out the flies that were 
concealed between them, and that in fuch numbers that they quite 
defaced the thatch, and gave it a ragged appearance. 
The blue titmoufe, or nun, is a great frequenter of houfes, and" 
a general devourer. Befides infefts, it is very fond of flefli ; for it 
frequently picks bones on dunghills : it is a vaft admirer of fuer, 
and haunts butchers' fliops. When a boy, I have known twenty 
in a morning caught with fnap moufe-traps, baited with tallow 
Qr fuet. It will alfo pick holes in apples left on the ground, and 
be 
