TITMICE. 
The “ tit ” family is exceedingly numerous. There is the 
“ Ox-eye Tit,” the “ Cole Tit,” the “ Blue Tit,” the “ Bottle 
Tit,” the “ Marsh “Tit,” the “ Crested Tit,” and the “ Bearded 
Tit.” As regards the two latter, however, passing mention 
will he sufficient, as it is unlikely that the reader, unless he 
he a Swede, or a German, or a Russian, ever saw one or the 
other, unless it was among a collection of stuffed birds. As its 
name implies, the crested tit has a tuft of feathers surmounting 
its head. It is a solitary hird, and delights in the gloom of 
dense forests. The bearded tit is distinguished from the rest 
of its species by a funny sort of moustache of glossy feathers 
overhanging its beak. 
The best known of the tit tribe is the blue tit, that is to say, 
it is best known to naturalists, and that sort of severe people 
by that name ; but I am inclined to think that boys will better 
recognize their little favourite when I call him tomtit. No 
wonder he is such a favourite with the boys, he is so much like 
themselves. Never a moment still, skipping, jumping, and 
hopping here and there, turning summersaults round its perch, j 
tormenting its fellows, brimming over with fun and mischief. | 
The gardener gives Tom a dreadful character. He calls him a j 
thief, and declares that he is never to be seen without a bud in | 
his mouth, so in the spring time the gardener has ever got a J 
loaded gun “ round the corner ” to shoot poor Thomas down. j 
i As he ever was, and (it seems) ever will be, the gardener is a j 
blunderer. It is quite true that Tomtit is seldom seen with- j 
out a bud in his mouth, but it is equally true that the bud is | 
certain to contain a worm. It is the worm, not the bud, that is 
the attraction. “ I would not so much care,” said a gardener j 
to me, “ if the little imps would fill their bellies with the buds { 
and have done; but they are so wasteful, just pick out the hearts, } 
and then throw them away.” For Tomtit’s sake I did my best i 
to convince this dense-headed gardener that the bird merely 
laid the bud sufficiently open to get at the worm ; he merely 
shook his head, and replied that “it was all very well for gen’lmen 
as didn’t grow fruit to stick up for the warmint, but they warn’t 
agoin’ to knock that sort of logic into him.” 
The plumage of the tomtit is very beautiful. The front of 
his head and the sides are white, and a streak of white extends 
backward over the eyes to the nape of the neck. 'Within this 
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