GREAT TITMOUSE. 
149 
I NS ESSO RES. PARI DJE. 
DENTIROSTRES. 
GREAT TITMOUSE, 
OX-EYE. 
Parus major. 
PLATE XXXIX. FIG. I. 
There are none of our birds to which we are more 
indebted for amusement and companionship than the 
Titmice. They are with us the year through and 
supply the place of the truant summer-visitors which 
have left us. Although deprived of song, there is still 
something most agreeable in their gay, cheerful, and 
oft-repeated notes. The constant chatter of the blue- 
cap, the deep bass voice of the marsh titmouse, and 
even the monotonous spring-pipe of the greater tit¬ 
mouse, are all sounds highly pleasing to the lovers of 
nature. In activity and the beauty and gracefulness 
of their actions they are surpassed by none; no place 
is hidden from their researches; they are perfect moun¬ 
tebanks, and it seems to matter little to them whether 
their heads or their heels are uppermost; dancing at 
one moment in antics round the branches of a tree and 
at the next hanging suspended from its most slender 
twigs. They are some of the most prolific and conse¬ 
quently most numerous of our British Birds. 
The Great Titmouse breeds in the holes of trees: 
Mr. Yarrell says it will also sometimes make use of 
the deserted nest of a crow or magpie for that pur¬ 
pose. The nest is composed of moss and feathers, with 
