£4° BRITISH BIRDS. 
the head, and her colours in general are not fo 
bright. 
This bufy little bird is feen frequently in our 
gardens and orchards, where its operations are 
much dreaded by the over-anxious gardener, who 
fears, left in its purfuit after its favorite food, which 
is often lodged in the tender buds, that it may de- 
ftroy them alfo, to the injury of his future harveft 
—not confidering that it is the means of deftroying 
a much more dangerous enemy (the caterpillar), 
which it finds there : It has likewife a ftrong pro- 
penfity to flefti, and is faid to pick the bones of 
fuch fmall birds as it can mafter, as clean as Ikele- 
tons. This bird is diftinguillied above all the reft 
of the Titmice by its rancour againft the Owl: — • 
The female builds her neft in holes of walls or 
trees, which it lines well with feathers ; Ihe lays 
from fourteen to twenty white eggs. If her eggs 
fhould be touched by any perfon, or one of them 
be broken, Ihe immediately forfakes her neft and 
builds again, but otherwife makes but one hatch in 
the yean 
