42 
E X T R A C T S—N A T U R A L HIS T OIIY. 
Habits of the Marsh Titmouse. —(Paras palustris Lin .)—I have been 
much surprised this spring, at witnessing, in two or three instances, the tenacity 
with which the marsh titmouse .attaches itself to its nest. Being in a wood near 
my own house, J perceived a pair of these birds in one of the trees, and having 
seen them in the same place several times before, I sat down to watch their mo¬ 
tions. After examining me on all sides, with much chattering, and many gesti¬ 
culations, indicative of dislike and suspicion, the female flew to the root of a 
tree, three or four yards oft', and disappeared. As she had gone to the opposite 
side to that on which I sat, and as there were several holes about the root, I was 
at a loss to know' in which the nest w r as built, and began to strike the root w ith a 
stick expecting her to fly out, but nothing appeared. I then examined the holes 
one by one, and whilst doing so, I heard her hissing and puffing from within. 
However, as she would not come out, and the hole w r as so small that 1 could not 
get my hand in, I was obliged to raise the seige until next morning, when I re¬ 
turned, armed w'ith a hammer and chisel, with which to storm her citadel. Du¬ 
ring the time of my opening the hole, which occupied about ten minutes, she 
sat upon the nest puffing and pecking at a stick that I had thrust in, in order to 
drive her off. She at last crept upon the farther edge of the nest, w'hich I then 
took out, and on attempting to blow one of the eggs, I found them too far ad¬ 
vanced, I then turned back to the tree, where the female bird was still sitting in 
the hole from whence the nest was taken, and replaced the nest in its foi'mer situ¬ 
ation, but the bird left it immediately and did not again return. Another in¬ 
stance which I witnessed was in a nest containing young. This was also at the 
root of a tree, the hole went quite through, and, on one side, w as large enough 
to admit the hand. As the young ones were exposed to the weather, and w'ere 
also liable to be seen by any one going along the adjoining footpath, I attemp 
ted to remedy this defect by covering the large hole with a sod. One day, on 
taking the sod off', fo see how the nestlings w r ere going on, I perceived that a clod 
of earth had fallen from the sod upon them; I took a stick and hooked it out, 
fearing it might smother them. Whilst I was doing this, I perceived the old one 
sat on the farther side of the nest, so still and quiet that until I perceived her 
eye, I fancied that she was dead, for she endured several pokings w'ith the stick 
before she would move, although the hole on the opposite side of the tree ena¬ 
bled her to escape whenever she thought proper.— F. G. Mag. Nat. Hist. 
Wolves of America. —Wolves are very numerous in every part of the state. 
There are two kinds: the common or black wolf, and the praire wolf. The for¬ 
mer is a large fierce animal, and very destructive to sheep, pigs, calves, poultry, 
and even young colts. They hunt in large packs, and after using every strata¬ 
gem to circumvent their prey, attack it with remarkable ferocity. Like the In¬ 
dian, they always endeavour to surprise their victim, and strike the mortal blow 
without exposing themselves to danger. They seldom attack man except when 
asleep or wounded. The largest animals, when w-ounded, entangled, or other¬ 
wise disabled, become their prey, but in general they only attack such as are in¬ 
capable of resistance. They have been known to lie in wait upon the bank of a 
stream, which the buffaloes were in the habit of crossing, and when one of those 
unwieldy animals sank in the mire, spring suddenly upon it, and worry it to 
death, while thus disabled of resistance. Their most common prey is the deer, 
which they haunt regularly, but all defenceless animals arc alike acceptable to 
them. When tempted by hunger, they approach the farm-houses in the night 
