88 
PICTURES OF BIRD LIFE. 
Tit, as some spell it, from the black colours of the bird. A casual observer 
might easily confuse it with the Marsh Tit, but there are strong points of 
difference. Johns sums up these concisely. “The head and neck of the present 
species is glossy black, with a patch of pure white on the nape of the neck and 
on the cheeks, while the head of the Marsh Tit is of a dull, sooty black, 
without any admixture of white, nor is there a white spot on the cheeks.” The 
wing coverts of this species are also spotted with pure white, which never occurs 
in the Marsh Tit. It is found, like its congeners, in fir-woods, and seems to 
increase in number throughout the country wherever pines are largely planted. 
Like the last, it builds its nest in holes of walls and trees, and lays six or 
seven eggs, with rather larger spots on them than have those of the Blue Tit. 
In Russia the limits of this species seem to extend to Lake Baikal, and Canon 
Tristram has found it abundantly among the cedars on Mount Lebanon. 
The Marsh Tit ( Pams palustris) is, as its name imports, found most frequently 
in low, swampy situations among willows and alders, but it often visits orchards 
and coppices, preferring bushes, however, to lofty trees. It usually builds in old 
willow-trees, or any other suitable stumps, and does not even on occasion despise 
a rat’s hole in the bank. It lays from four to eight eggs, white, spotted with 
dull red, like those of the other members of the Tit family. It has been 
supposed to vary in abundance with the previous species, being rather local in 
its distribution. Its call-notes are harsh, but the cock bird utters a pleasing 
twitter in spring. Professor Newton remarks that some authors have considered 
there is a certain relationship between the members of the Tit family and those 
of the crow tribe, of which the habit of grasping their prey with one foot while 
picking it may be deemed an indication. These four species of the Tits are of 
great benefit to the planter and gardener, and help to keep down those armies 
of insects which would otherwise so seriously injure vegetation. The Marsh Tit 
bears a considerable resemblance to the “ Chickadee,” or Black-cap Titmouse of 
North America, one of the most busy, amusing, and chattering birds of that 
country, of which Lowell writes— 
“ Far distant sounds the hidden Chickadee, 
Close at my side.” 
“ The Titmouse,” writes White, “ which early in February begins to make two 
quaint notes, like the whetting of a saw, is the Marsh Titmouse.” 
The next species of the family is a rare and local one, the Crested Tit (Parus 
cristatus ) / indeed it does not seem to have occurred in England. It is a solitary 
