legged kind of crow, is perhaps its only companion on the higher cliffs, though much more scarce. Mr. Montagu enumerates also the fieldlark, a small species, migrating in winter.

There is still some obscurity respecting one or two species of larks and summer warblers; all the other British birds are to be found exactly described, and accurately distinguished. The difference in plumage between the male and female, and the imperfect marks on the immature feathers of young birds, may sometimes puzzle a youthful observer, but a little perseverance conquers the difficulty.

What bird is that (we think we hear a young enquirer ask) whose note in spring so exactly imitates the setting of a saw ?—It is the great BLACK-HEADED TITMOUse. We have often watched it emitting this grating sound, which ceases when it has a nest; and appears to foretell rain. A nice observer of birds and quadrupeds will be able to predict changes in the weather better than the best barometer.

Our friend the sawyer is the largest of a very amusing tribe of birds, of seven in number: two of these, the crested titmouse (found only in the forests of Scotland), and the elegant bearded titmouse* (inhabiting inaccessible reedy

* These birds are found amidst the reeds on the banks of the Thames. A friend informs us, that at Whittlesea

tracts), will seldom come under our observation, but the other five are of no unfrequent occurrence, and two or three of them are always to be seen. None of them have any song, but a quick little chatter or twitter, which they continually repeat. Dwelling together in families, in continual movement, in every attitude, flitting unceasingly from bough to bough, and calling to each other, what was ill-naturedly said of the Irish ladies applies with great truth to the titmice: "there is no repose about them." Buffon, with his usual ability, gives a pleasing and accurate description of these birds, part of which we transcribe:-" They are lively, active, and courageous: they flit from tree to tree; they hop from branch to branch: they hang upon the bark; they poise themselves against the walls; they hook themselves on the trunks of trees, and hang in all forms, often with the head downwards, in order to be able to examine every little crevice, and to search out caterpillars, insects, or their eggs. They live also on grain; but, instead of breaking it with their bill, like the linnets and goldfinches,

Mere, in Huntingdonshire, they sometimes appear in great numbers one week, and the next none are to be seen. They chiefly feed on the seeds of marsh plants, but also eat insects.

almost all the titmice hold it fixed under their little claws, and pierce it with strokes of the beak. They pierce in the same way nuts and almonds. In general all the titmice, though rather fierce, love the company of their brethren, and keep in families. When they have been separated by some accident, they call mutually to each other, and soon rejoin in society." * They lay many eggs; most species making their nests in the hole of a tree, but one in a round ball appended to a branch, and of a size disproportioned to so small a bird: "so that it appears (says Buffon) as if they were able to count the number of their eggs before they were laid."

"Every species of titmouse (says Mr. White) winters with us +: they have what I call a kind of intermediate bill between the hard and the soft, between the Linnæan genera of Fringilla (finch) and Motacilla (warbler). One species alone spends its whole time in the woods and fields, never retreating for succour, in the severest seasons, to houses and neigh

• Buffon. Mesange. The whole account will well repay the trouble of perusal.

† A correspondent of Mr. Loudon thinks several species partially migrate from the vicinity of Abbotsford, in Scotland: they certainly remain all the year in our midland counties. See Mag. Nat. Hist. No. xviii.

bourhoods; and that is the delicate long-tailed titmouse, which is almost as minute as the golden-crested wren. But the blue titmouse, or nun (Parus cæruleus), the colemouse (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 in dunghills: it is a vast admirer of suet, and haunts butchers' shops. When a boy, I have known twenty in a morning caught with snap mouse-traps, baited with tallow or suet. * It will also pick

* Buffon says, "if, caught in a trap, this titmouse should escape, he will return over and over to the same bait; which seems extraordinary in so crafty a bird.”

holes in apples left on the ground; and be well entertained with the seeds in the head of a sun-flower. The blue, marsh, and great titmice will, in very severe weather, carry away barley and oats' straws from the sides of ricks."

The large BLACK-HEADED TITMOUSE, with a fine olive-green coat on his back, is very fond of fir trees. We had often heard in the winter a hammering noise, which appeared to be caused by this bird; and, throwing a stone smartly at him, he dropped something, which proved to be a hazle nut, a little perforated at the smaller end, by repeated strokes of his bill. We often afterwards watched him at work, and found under his workshop many shells from which the nut had been extracted, and some split into halves. It is said, that if a nut be suspended at the end of a string, the titmouse will fix himself on this nut, and follow all its oscillations, without ceasing to hack it with his bill.*

The little BLUE TITMOUSE, with a yellow breast, is very common, very pert, mischievous,

The ingenious foreigner accounts for it as arising from

his great courage; "for, if he remembers he was caught, he also recollects he escaped."

* Buffon.