Part 46

"The Great Tit," says Mr. Yarrell, "will frequently kill small birds, accomplishing his purpose by repeated blows with his sharp beak on the skull of the victim, and afterwards picking out and eating the brains. Though more truly a feeder on insects, the Great Tit, unlike insectivorous birds in general, does not migrate, but remains all the year round in the same district, apparently unaffected by the very different temperature of Italy as compared with Russia, and the species is known to be constantly resident in both countries. In England the Great Tit is seldom seen on bleak open ground, but inhabits woods, the vicinity of gardens, or other enclosed and sheltered situations in summer, where it occasionally feeds on small seeds. In winter it approaches nearer the habitations of men, and may be seen in hard weather closely examining the thatch of old buildings in search of the many small flies that harbour there. As the Great Tit is an early breeder, the lively chirping notes of the males are heard early in February; sometimes this bird produces a sound which has been considered to resemble the noise made in sharpening a saw; and, though this is small praise, his notes are more remarkable for vivacity and frequent repetition than for quality of tone. The nest, formed of moss and lined with hair and feathers, is usually placed in the hollow of a tree, or a hole in a wall. The deserted nest of a Crow or Magpie is sometimes chosen. Several observers have recorded the partiality so frequently evinced by this species to build its nest in or about any old unused wooden pump, and the mass of materials collected on such occasions wherewith to construct it. The eggs are from six to nine in number, nine lines and a half in length and seven lines in breadth; white, spotted and speckled with pale red."

"Rusticus," of Godalming, has given an amusing account of the behaviour of one of this species which came under his observation:--"The next object of attention was a Titmouse of the large black-headed kind, swinging himself about like a rope-dancer, and whistling out his sing-song just like a fellow sharpening a saw. To my surprise the gentleman entered an old Magpie's nest, to which I had paid frequent friendly visits during the previous spring; he immediately came out again and jumped about, sharpening his saw as before. One might almost as well handle a hedgehog as a Magpie's nest; in this instance some cuttings of gooseberry bushes, skilfully woven into an arch above it, rendered it rather more untempting than usual. I was meditating how to commence the attack, when another Tit flew out in a great choler, and rated me as though I had already robbed her. After a good deal of trouble, during which the slender fir-top was swinging about with me in the breeze, I succeeded in obtaining a peep into the nest; there was nest within nest, the cosiest, softest, warmest little nest, with eight delicately speckled eggs at the bottom of the Magpie's more spacious habitation. I declined meddling with them."

THE SOMBRE TIT.

The SOMBRE TIT (_Parus lugubris_).--"This bird," says Mr. Gould, "does not approach the British Islands, nor even the more temperate parts of the European Continent. Its habitat is almost restricted to the European confines of the Asiatic border; it has, however, never been observed in Austria, or any part of Germany, although pretty common in Dalmatia. The male and female are alike in plumage, and may be thus described:--The whole of the upper surface is of a brownish ash-colour, becoming deeper on the top of the head; the secondaries and tail-feathers are slightly margined with white; throat brownish black; the cheeks and the whole of the under surface white, slightly tinted with brownish grey; beak and feet lead-colour."

THE COLE TIT.

The COLE TIT (_Parus ater_).--The head, neck, and upper breast are black; the cheeks and nape white. The length of the bird is four inches and a half, its breadth seven inches. The bill is black, the irides hazel, the legs are lead-grey; the upper part of the plumage is greyish, the belly yellowish white. The covers of the secondaries and those above are tipped with white, forming two bars across the wing. In the female the white on the cheeks is less extended.

This species is generally spread over the continent of Europe, and is almost as frequent in Great Britain as the Great Tit or the Blue Tit. It has been considered by some naturalists to be identical with the Marsh Tit, but may at once be distinguished from that bird by the white patch on the nape of the neck, and the white spots on the wing-covers, which are not to be found on the Marsh Tit at any age. The Cole Tit frequents woods and plantations, especially those in which oak, birch, and fir trees are numerous, and may be seen in company with other birds of similar habits, roving from tree to tree in search of the small insects and seeds on which they subsist. "In the pine forests of the Dee and Spey," says Macgillivray, "where very few birds are met with, it is pleasant to follow a troop of these tiny creatures, as they search the tree-tops, spreading all round, fluttering and creeping among the branches, ever in motion, now clinging to a twig in an inverted position, now hovering over a tuft of leaves, picking in a crevice of the bark, searching all the boughs, sometimes visiting the lowermost, and again winding among those at the very tops of the trees. In wandering among these woods you are attracted by their shrill, _chirping_ notes, which they continually emit as they flutter among the branches." "In woodlands," says Mr. Hepburn, "it is common to see it hopping along the grounds, and uttering its harsh notes, 'If hee!' 'if hee!' It delights to examine a ditch that has just been cleaned out. I have seen it pull small earthworms to pieces and devour them."

"It is a matter of curious inquiry," says Gilbert White, "to trace out how those species of soft-billed birds that continue with us the winter through, subsist during the dead months. The imbecility of birds seems not to be the only reason why they shun the rigour of our winters, for the robust Wry-neck (so much resembling the hardy race of Woodpeckers) migrates, while the feeble little Golden-crested Wren, that shadow of a bird, braves our severest frosts without availing himself of houses or villages, to which most of our birds crowd in distressful seasons, while he keeps aloof in fields and woods; but perhaps this may be the reason why they often perish, and why they are almost as rare as any bird we know.

"I have no reason to doubt that that the soft-billed birds which winter with us subsist chiefly on insects in their chrysalis state. All the species of Wagtails in severe weather haunt shallow streams, near their spring-heads, where they never freeze; and, by wading, pick out the chrysalis of the genus of _Phryganeæ_.

"Hedge Sparrows frequent sinks and gutters in hard weather, where they pick up crumbs and other sweepings, and in mild weather they procure worms, which are stirring every month in the year, as any one may see that will only be at the trouble of taking a candle to a grass-plot on any mild winter's night. Redbreasts and Wrens in the winter haunt outhouses, stables, and barns, where they find spiders and flies, that have laid themselves up during the cold season. But the grand support of the soft-billed birds in the winter is that infinite profusion of chrysalids of the _Lepidoptera ordo_ which is fastened to the twigs of trees and their trunks, to the poles and walls of gardens and buildings, and is found in every cranny and cleft of rock or rubbish, and even in the ground itself.

"Every species of Titmouse winters with us. They have," continues our author, "what I call an intermediate bill, between the hard and the soft, between the Linnæan genera of _Fringilla_ and _Motacilla_. One species alone spends its whole time in the woods and fields, never retreating for succour, in the severest seasons, to houses and neighbourhoods, and that is the delicate Long-tailed Titmouse, which is almost as minute as the Golden-crowned Wren, but the Blue Titmouse or Nun (_Parus cæruleus_), the Cole Mouse (_Parus ater_), the Great Black-headed Titmouse (_Fringillago_), and the Marsh Titmouse (_Parus palustris_), all resort at times to buildings, and in hard weather particularly. The Great Titmouse, driven by stress of weather, much frequents houses, and in deep snows I have seen this bird, while it hung with its back downwards (to my no small delight and admiration) draw straws lengthwise from out the eaves of thatched houses, in order to pull out the flies that were concealed between them, and that in such numbers that they quite defaced the thatch, and gave it a ragged appearance.

"The Blue Titmouse, or Nun, is a great frequenter of houses, and a general devourer. Besides insects, it is very fond of flesh, for it frequently picks bones on dunghills. It is a vast admirer of suet, and haunts butchers' shops. It will also pick holes in apples left on the ground, and be well entertained with the seeds on the head of a sunflower. The Blue Marsh and Great Titmice will, in very severe weather, carry away barley and oat-straws from the sides of ricks.

"How the Wheat-ear and Whin-chat support themselves in winter cannot be so easily ascertained, since they spend their time on wild heaths and warrens, the former especially where there are stone-quarries. Most probable it is that their maintenance arises from the aurelia of the _Lepidoptera ordo_, which furnish them with a plentiful table in the wilderness."

"That some guess may be formed of the possible extent of good or evil occasioned by small birds," says Bishop Stanley, "we annex the result of our own observations on the precise quantity of food consumed by certain species, either for their own support or that of their young, remarking at the same time that the difference observed in the instances may be partly accounted for by the different quantity of food required by young birds at different periods of their growth.

"Sparrows feed their young thirty-six times in an hour, which, calculating at the rate of fourteen hours a day, in the long days of spring and summer, gives 3,500 times per week, a number corroborated on the authority of another writer, who calculated the number of caterpillars destroyed in a week to be about 3,400.

"Redstarts were observed to feed their young with little green grubs from gooseberry-trees twenty-three times in an hour, which, at the same calculation, amounts to 2,254 times in a week, but more grubs than one were usually imported each time.

"Chaffinches at the rate of about thirty-five times an hour for five or six times together, when they would pause, and not return for intervals of eight or ten minutes; the food was green caterpillars.

"The Titmouse sixteen times in an hour.

"The comparative weight consumed was as follows:--

"A Greenfinch, provided with eighty grains by weight of wheat, in twenty-four hours consumed seventy-nine; but of a thick paste, made of flour, eggs, &c., it consumed upwards of one hundred grains.

"A Goldfinch consumed about ninety grains of Canary seed in twenty-four hours.

"Sixteen Canaries consumed at the average rate of one hundred grains each in twenty-four hours.

"The consumption of food by these birds, compared with the weight of their bodies, was about one-sixth; which, supposing a man to consume food in the same proportion to his weight, would amount to about twenty-five pounds for every twenty-four hours."

The nest, which is formed of moss and wool, lined with hair, is placed in a hole in a wall, or the hollow of a tree, or sometimes on the ground, in cavities among the exposed roots, at the mouth of some burrow. The eggs are from six to eight in number, and are white, spotted with pale red.

* * * * *

The BLUE TITS represent a group that have been separated from those mentioned above on account of the unusual shortness of their much-curved beak and the peculiar coloration of their plumage.

THE BLUE TIT.

The BLUE TIT (_Parus cæruleus_) is bluish green on the back, and blue on the head, wings, and tail, while the under side is yellow; a white line passes from the brow to the nape, and a narrow bluish black line divides the white cheeks from the dark head; the throat is encircled by a blue band; the quills are slate-black, the hinder ones sky-blue on the outer web and white at the tip; the tail-feathers are greyish blue. The eye is dark brown, the beak black, with white margins, and the foot lead-grey. The female is less beautifully coloured than her mate, and the young somewhat paler. This species is four inches and a half long and seven and a half broad; the wing measures two inches and a third, and the tail about two inches.

The Blue Tits are met with over a greater extent of country than any other member of their family. In Europe they are dispersed over the entire continent, from its most northern latitude to the extreme south; in Northern Africa and Eastern Asia they are replaced by a very similar species. In Great Britain, where they are extremely common, they frequent gardens, groves, or orchards, and have been popularly supposed to do considerable damage by pecking at the buds of fruit trees; it is much more likely, however, that these active little visitants to our orchards, when they seem thus employed, are busily engaged in rendering us an important service, by clearing off the insects and grubs that infest the blossoms sometimes in such large numbers as would seriously injure the crops. "This species," says Mudie, "is perhaps more incessant than any other bird in hunting the buds and branches of trees, especially of fruit trees near houses, for its insect prey; but it will eat any animal matter either in a recent or putrid state, and it appears to scent animal remains at a considerable distance, as it hovers about slaughter-houses, dog-kennels, and other places where there are scraps of carrion. It also haunts the neighbourhood of houses, and picks bones, eats bits of fat, or any refuse it can find, and, when opportunity favours, will even kill other birds by striking them on the head, and then picks their bones as clean as if they were cleared by the thousand inhabitants of an ant-hill. Dead birds are, of course, lawful prize, for which it searches under trees and hedges after severe weather. It is, in short, a very omnivorous bird, and plays the scavenger with equal diligence and grace. It is also very bold and familiar, and will alight among the poultry in the farm-yard or amid the dogs in the kennel; nor does it much heed the presence of people even under the trees upon which it is hunting." So strong is the liking of the Blue Tit for fat, that Gilbert White tells us that he has known as many as twenty caught in one morning with a common snap mouse-trap, baited with tallow or suet.

"When the Blue Tit," says Yarrell, "has taken possession of a hole in a wall or decayed tree, she is not readily induced to quit it, but defends her nest and eggs with great courage and perseverance, puffing out her feathers and hissing like an angry kitten; in some counties, indeed, she goes by the name of 'Billy Biter' among bird-nesting boys, from a vivid remembrance of certain impressions on their fingers. A female that had taken possession of a small wooden box hung up against an out-building, into which she had carried abundance of material for her nest, and in the midst of which she was then sitting upon her numerous eggs, allowed herself to be carried into a house for examination, and when the box was replaced in its former situation, did not desert her eggs, but hatched them and reared her young."

The nest is generally built in a hole in some tree, in many instances excavated by the building birds themselves; and frequent and fierce are the battles that take place between the different couples, relative to the possession of a particularly desirable spot. Within this cavity, a comfortable bed of hair, moss, or feathers is arranged for the reception of the eggs, eight or ten in number, which are white, with spots of rust-red, and about seven lines and a half long, and six in diameter.

Sometimes this bird selects very whimsical situations for a nest. Bishop Stanley, in his "Familiar History of Birds," relates that "A pair of Titmice (_Parus cæruleus_) built their nest in the upper part of an old pump, fixing it on the pin on which the handle worked. It happened that during the time of building and laying the eggs the pump had not been in use; when again set going the female was sitting, and it was naturally supposed that the motion of the pump-handle would drive her away. The young brood were, however, hatched safely, without any other misfortune than the loss of a part of the tail of the sitting bird, which was rubbed off by the friction of the pump-handle. The opening for a pump-handle seems, indeed, to be a favourite spot, notwithstanding its danger, as we knew of another pair of Titmice, who for several days persevered in inserting, close upon the point of the handle, the materials for a nest, though every time the handle was raised they were either crushed or forced out, till the patience of the persevering little builders was fairly exhausted."

In the "Journal of a Naturalist" is the following interesting notice of the Blue Tit:--"I was lately exceedingly pleased in witnessing the maternal care and intelligence of this bird; the poor thing had its young ones in the hole of a wall, and the nest had been nearly all drawn out of the crevice by the paw of a cat, and part of its brood devoured. In re-visiting its home the bird discovered some of its nestlings still alive, though wrapped up and hidden in the tangled moss and feathers of their bed, and it then drew the whole of the nest back into the place from whence it had been taken, unrolled and re-settled the remaining little ones, fed them with the usual attentions, and finally succeeded in rearing them. The parents of even this reduced family laboured with great perseverance to supply the wants of their progeny, one or other of them bringing a grub, caterpillar, or some insect, at intervals of less than a minute during the day, and probably in the earlier part of the morning more frequently. Now if we allow that they brought food to the hole every minute for fourteen hours, and provided for their own wants also, it will admit, perhaps, a total of a thousand grubs a day for the requirements of one, and that a diminished brood, and afford some adequate comprehension of the infinite number requisite for the summer nutriment of our soft-billed birds, and the great distances gone over by such as have young ones, in their numerous trips from hedge to tree in the hours specified when they have full broods to support."

"In winter," says Macgillivray, "the Blue Tit may be occasionally seen about the farm yard, where it finds, when other food fails, a supply of oat or wheat seeds, which it jerks from their husks with its wedge-like bill. It also frequents the doors and dunghills, to pick up a bit of suet, or nibble a morsel of flesh; and where carrion is kept, it is often seen to help itself to a share. Often, at this season too, you may find it clinging to a wall, and digging at the loose plaster, to get at the insects or pupæ concealed behind. It will even make occasional excursions into the stubble near hedges or woods; and, in short, being in a manner omnivorous, it manages to get through the cold part of the year as well as its neighbours. It is accused of attacking other small birds, and splitting their skulls, but I have neither seen it do so, nor met with any other person who has; and we know how, when any assertion of the kind, however incredible, has been made, all the ornithologists catch the cry. It reposes in holes in walls, or among ivy, and seems to suffer less in severe frosts than most birds."

The song of the Blue Tits is a most insignificant performance, and their call-note a single shrill chirp. In other respects, however, they are in no respect inferior to other members of their family. In disposition they are lively, bold, and adventurous, and, were they a little larger, would probably assail enemies twice their own size, at whom they can, as it is, only ruffle up their feathers, and express, by vehement pecks and gesticulations, the pugnacious inclinations they cannot otherwise indulge. During the spring they live in pairs, in the summer in families, and in autumn associate in large flocks before commencing their winter excursions. Naumann tells us that previous to setting forth, these flocks assemble upon the tops of trees, calling incessantly to one another, as though each wished to induce its companions to set the example by commencing the unwonted flight. One after another rises into the air and makes a start, but finding that the rest have not resolution to follow, at once returns to his former perch, until at last all take flight simultaneously; but even when once fairly off, a mere trifle, such as a hat thrown upwards, will often cause them to drop heavily and precipitately to the ground. This unusual behaviour proceeds from the terror with which they regard the approach of any bird of prey, as they are well aware that in flying over any open country their inferior powers of wing place them completely at the mercy of such assailants. For this reason, when journeying to any distance, the flocks of Blue Tits usually rise to a great height before proceeding on their perilous journey.

THE AZURE TIT.

The AZURE TIT (_Parus cyaneus_) is considerably larger than the last-mentioned species. The upper part of the body is light blue, the head and under side are white, the nape and wings deep blue, the latter adorned with a broad white band, and tipped with white; the eye is dark brown, the beak greyish black, and the foot lead-grey. This species is from five inches and a quarter to six inches long, and nine and a half broad. The Azure Tit is spread over the eastern part of Siberia, and from thence wanders annually over some portions of Europe.

"This beautiful Tit," says Mr. Gould, "is a native of Siberia, whence it frequently strays into the northern parts of Europe, such as Russia and Poland, and it has been known to penetrate as far south as Germany. Like the rest of its family it dwells in woods and forests, generally in the most retired parts; it, therefore, is not to be wondered at that its history is shrouded in obscurity, when we consider how little intercourse naturalists have had with the remote countries that it inhabits. Like the rest of its race, the sexes of the Azure Tit offer little or no difference in the colour of the plumage. Nothing is known respecting nest or eggs."

THE SIBERIAN TIT.

The SIBERIAN TIT (_Parus Sibericus_) is, like the last-mentioned species, an inhabitant of the most northern parts of Europe and Asia. The upper surface of this bird is of a deep ash-colour, tinged on the back with brown; the quills, secondaries, and tail-feathers edged with white; throat black; cheeks and upper part of the chest pure white; under parts greyish white, washed with rufous on the flanks; bill and tarsi lead-colour.

The Siberian Tit is exceedingly rare in Europe. It migrates in winter to some of the provinces of Russia, and has been found in Sweden.

Mr. Lloyd informs us that it is plentiful in Lapland; that the greater portion are stationary all the year round; and that at Mauno, in latitude 68° 35´, it is almost the only bird to be found during the winter.