They will even breed in captivity. Their ordinary term of life is five or six years, and their death is sometimes preceded by gout, and a rheum in the eyes. During the spring, titmice are frequently observed searching for the tortrices, so abundant among the opening buds of fruit trees, and thus benefiting man in a very considerable de gree ; but their services are no better repaid than those of other small birds; and the thoughtless gardener, suppo sing them the enemies of his blossoms, destroys them without mercy. An uncommon variety of the present species is described and delineated by Lewin. The general colour of the plumage was much darker than in the common sort ; and both the mandibles were elongat ed, curved, and crossed. This singular specimen was taken up before it was quite dead, in the street of Fever sham, in Kent, after having been wounded by shot.
P . ater, &c. Cole-Titmouse. Back ash-coloured; head black, occiput white. Weighs two drachms and a quarter, and measures four inches and a . quarter in length. The nest is placed in some hole, either in a wall or a tree, and is composed of moss and wool, and lined with hair. The eggs are six or seven, sometimes as numerous as ten, pure white, and spotted with rusty red. That the present species subsists entirely on insects, appears to be an erroneous opinion ; for Labillardi&c, who observed it at the Cape of Good Elope, admired the lightness with which it hovered about the Agave viripara, whilst it fed on the saccharine liquor which exudes from the basis of the corolla of that plant; and we may add, that it will eat the sc-eds of the sun-flower with great greediness. In the neighbourhood of Paris, according to Vieillot, the colemouse appears to be a birch of passage, and yet it winters even beyond the Lena in Siberia. Frisch says, that in Germany it inhabits the pine forests; but in Sweden, according to Linne, it prefers the alders. It is likewise known to haunt woods in general, especially such as contain evergreens, and to be partial to vineyards and Like the rest of its congeners, it creeps and runs on the trees, and although next to the longtailed species, it is the smallest of the tribe; it is also reputed the least timorous and cunning, not only allowing a per son to approach very near it, but even to ensnare it more than once.
P. I:alustris, Lin. Ste. including P. autricafiillus, Marsh Titmouse, Prov. Black-can, Black-capped Tit mouse, or Little Black-headed Tom-tit. Head black, back ash-colour, temples white. The markings are, however, subject to vary. In general the black on the head extends downwards on the nape. Length four inches and a half, weight two drachms and a half. In the female, the black on the head is of a lighter shade than in the male, and on the throat very faint, with spots of grey. Though found throughout Europe, and even en during the hardest frosts of Siberia, it is at least a partial migrant in some parts of France ; flocks of them ap proaching houses in that country in September and Oc tober, and apparently passing into Italy. Though more common than the colemouse, it is by no means so much so as either the great or the blue species. With the latter t partakes of flesh, and haunts the oat-ricks. Besides ants, wasps, bees, and other insects, it devours with avi dity the seed of hemp, sun-flower, &c. and it lays up a store of seed against a season of want. Early in February it begins two quaint notes, like the whetting of a saw. It particularly affects low wet grounds, especially where old willow trees abound, in which, and in old apple and pear trees that are near water, it often nestles. They have been seen excavating the decayed parts of a willow-tree, carrying the chips in their bill to some distance, always working downwards, and making the bottom, for the re ception of the nest, larger than the entrance. The nest is composed of moss and thistledown, or feathers, and lined with down. The female lays five or six white eggs, spotted with rusty-re.:, chiefly at the larger end.
P. cxruleus, Lin. Eec. Blue Titmouse, or out-tit, Prov. Blue Cali, .A'un, Titmal, Tinnock, or Willow Bitter.
Olive-green above, yellowish beneath ; quills blue, outer margin of the primaries white ; forehead white; and crown blue. The line from the bill to the eyes, that sur rounding the temples, and legs and claws, black. Length, about four inches and a half, and weight three drachms. Belon, Klein, and Kolben arc, therefore, mistaken, in re presenting it as the smallest of the family. The female is rather smaller than the male, and has less of blue on the head. In the young birds, the white is replaced by yel lowish, the blue by sinereous-brown, and the olive-green and yellow by duller shades.
This species, which would probably be more admired for its beauty were it less common, inhabits the whole of Europe, southern Russia, but not Siberia, and is met with on the coast of Africa, and in the Canary Islands; but, in these warmer latitudes the blue approaches to black, and the other hues are less distinctly marked. By ridding our orchards and gardens of insects and their larva, it renders us an important service, but which is sometimes counter balanced by the tender buds which it destroys in hunting for them, and by picking the full formed fruit, which it carries to its receptacle for provisions. In winter it fre quents houses for the sake of plunder, and it will greedily devour flesh, whether recent or putrid. So cleanly does it pick the bones of the birds which it subdues, that Klein proposed to employ its services in preparing skeletons of this class of animals. It is a constant attendant where horse-flesh is kept for hounds, and also in the farm-yard, being fond of oats, which it plucks out of the ear, and, re tiring to a neighbouring bush, fixes between its claws, and hammers with its bill to break the husk. Mr. White ob serves, that it frequently picks bones on dunghills, is a great admirer of suet, and frequents butcher's shops. " When a boy," he says, " I have known twenty in a morning caught with snap mouse-traps, baited with tal low or suet. It will also pick holes in apples left on the ground, and be well entertained with the seeds on the top of a sun-flower." Its ordinary retreat is a hollow tree, or a hole in a wall, selected in some warm situation, in win ter, but in one more cool, and of more difficult access in summer. In this dwelling the female constructs her nest, composed of moss, and lined with a great quantity of fea thers and hair. The number of eggs, according to Mon tagu, who examined many of the nests, is six or seven, and rarely eight. Montbeillard again mentions having seen seventeen in one nest ; and ornithologists have generally asserted that they sometimes amount to twenty, or even to twenty-two. They are of a reddish-white, and speckled with rust-colour at the larger end. Should they be touch ed, or a single one broken, the dam forsakes the nest, and breeds again; but otherwise she makes but one hatch in the year ; and after the young have been produced, she is su tenacious of her nest, that she will often suffer herself to be taken rather than quit it, and will return to it after having been removed from it. She menaces every intru der in a singular manner, hissing like a snake, bristling all her feathers, and tittering a noise like the spitting of a cat, at the same.time biting severely if handled, and defending herself to the last gasp. As soon as the young brood can fly, they associate with their parents, quit the woods, re sort to gardens and orchards, and often mingle with the great titmice. The pairing commences in January, and although their chirp is singular and little varied, yet we hear it with no unpleasing emotion, as one of the early harbingers of spring. At other seasons these birds have no regular song, hut utter a shrill note, quickly repeated. A full-grown bird, when taken, rejects not the food that is offered to it, and soon becomes familiar, nor does it seem to dislike the place of its confinement, provided it be some what spacious, and furnished with lurking holes, in which it may occasionally conceal itself, and pass the night ; but few of them, even when treated with the utmost attention, survive the close of winter.