many naturalists in their systems, differs widely from those birds in
some points. The question of its true position among passerine birds
has, indeed, been a subject of controversy for a long time past, and
is not yet settled. Some writers would have it that it comes nearest
to the shrikes; others, that it is most closely related to the
buntings; and still others place it next to the waxwing. Leaving aside
anatomical subjects, it may be said that the bearded tit is unlike all
these different birds and the titmice in habits, language, colouring,
and in its curious feather-ornaments--the erectile, pointed, black
feathers that grow between the beak and eyes, and form the curious long
moustache which gives the bird its name.
The bearded tit, although at all times an extremely local species, on
account of its being exclusively an inhabitant of reed-beds, was once
fairly common in many parts of England; but owing to the draining of
marshes and to the persecution of collectors, it has now become one of
the rarest of British birds. At present it is confined to the district
of the Broads in Norfolk, where it is, unhappily, becoming increasingly
rare, and is threatened with extinction at no distant date.
It is a very pretty bird in its buff and fawn coloured dress; very
elegant in form, its singular black moustache and long, graduated tail
enhancing the beauty of its appearance; and exceedingly graceful in
its motions. It lives in the beds of reeds growing in the water; and
the slim, graceful, clinging bird, and the tall, slender stems, with
their pale, pointed leaves and feathery flowers, seem adapted each to
the other. In seeking its food it clings to the reeds, much as the
blue tit does to the pendent twigs of the birch. Its food consists of
small insects and their larvæ, small molluscs, and the seeds of the
reeds. In autumn and winter it is gregarious, three or four, or more,
families uniting in a flock, and roaming from reed-bed to reed-bed and
from broad to broad. When disturbed, or alarmed at the appearance of a
hawk, they drop down into concealment among the reeds, but in a short
time rise to the surface again, climbing parrot-like up the slender
stems. There are few birds without a brilliant colouring that have
so attractive an appearance as the bearded tit, especially when seen
flying just above the top of the reeds, or when perched on a slender
stem near its top, and swayed to and fro by the wind. Their alarm-note
is harsh, but they have a variety of calling and singing notes, which
are somewhat metallic in sound and very musical. A writer in Loudon’s
‘Magazine of Natural History’ describes the bearded tits in flight
as ‘uttering in full chorus their sweetly musical notes; it may be
compared to the music of very small cymbals, is clear and ringing,
though soft, and corresponds well with the delicacy and beauty of the
form and colour of the bird.’
The nest is made at the end of March or early in April, and is placed
on the ground, under a bush, or among the grass and herbage near the
water. It is composed of leaves of reeds, bents, and grass-blades,
and lined with the fine fibres of the reed-tops. The eggs are four to
six in number, and sometimes eight; they are white, with a few minute
specks, blotches, and lines of dark reddish brown.
Long-tailed Titmouse.
Acredula rosea.
Head, neck, throat, breast, and a portion of the outer tail-feathers
white; back, wings, and six middle feathers of the tail black; a black
streak above the eye; sides of the back and scapulars tinged with
rosy red; under parts reddish white. Tail very long; beak very short.
Length, five inches and three-quarters.
* * * * *
The long-tailed tit is the least of the titmice, and is only saved from
being described as the smallest British bird on account of its loose
plumage and long tail, which make it look a trifle more bulky than the
golden-crested wren. In many of its habits, and to some extent in its
appearance, it resembles the typical tits, the five species of the
genus Parus which remain to be described, and is often seen associating
with them in winter. In its colouring, language, and nesting habits
it differs from them. It is a somewhat singular-looking little bird,
with grey and rose-coloured plumage, short wings, a very long tail,
and a short, conical beak, which gives the round head something of a
parrot-like appearance.
[Illustration: FIG. 33.--LONG-TAILED TIT. ¼ natural size.]
This species is found throughout Great Britain and Ireland, but is less
common in Scotland than in England. It inhabits woods and plantations,
and, like the other tits, is social, active, and restless in its
habits. After the breeding season the old and young birds remain
united, and spend the autumn and winter months in perpetually wandering
through the woods; but their travels do not take them far from home.
They are seen in a scattered party, each member of which appears wholly
occupied with his own search for minute insects and their eggs and
larvæ, but is ready at a given signal to abandon his food-getting and
join the others in their hurried flight to the next tree. And as they
pass from tree to tree their short wings and long tails give them, as
Knapp said, the appearance of a flight of arrows. Leaving the woods,
they roam over the surrounding country, making their way by short
stages from tree to tree and from bush to bush, along lanes and hedges,
and visiting the clumps of trees in parks and pasture-lands. They also
come about houses, not for the crumbs that fall from the table, but to
continue in gardens and shrubberies their endless search for minute
insects. Very restless and anxious little hearts are theirs, one would
imagine, from their incessant hurried flittings from place to place,
and the small, querulous sounds in which they converse together.
At night they roost huddled together in a cluster composed, in some
cases, of half a dozen or eight birds in a row, with three or four
others perched on their backs, and one or two more resting on these.
Early in spring these curious little companies break up, and the song
or love-call of the male bird, so unlike that of the other tits, may
be heard--a prolonged trill, low and aërial, and very delicate in
sound. The nest is placed on a tree or bush, and is long in building,
and a marvel of bird architecture. It is domed, oval in shape, with
a small aperture near the top, and is composed of moss, lichens, and
hair closely felted, and the interior thickly lined with feathers.
Macgillivray says that the feathers taken from one nest numbered 2,379.
Six to eleven eggs are laid, sometimes a larger number. They are pure
white or pearly grey in ground-colour, thinly spotted with light red
and a few faint purple marks.
* * * * *
The continental form of the long-tailed tit, _Acredula caudata_,
differs from _A. rosea_ in wanting the dark stripe on the head;
specimens without the stripe are sometimes met with in this country,
but whether or no they are visitors from the Continent is not known.
Great Titmouse.
Parus major.
Head, throat, and a band passing down the centre of the breast black;
back olive-green; cheeks and a spot on the nape white; breast and belly
yellow. Length, six inches.
* * * * *
The great tit, or oxeye, is a resident species throughout the British
Islands, and inhabits woods and plantations, and is also seen in
orchards, gardens, and shrubberies. He is nowhere abundant, yet very
well known, being one of those species it would be difficult for even
the least observant person to overlook. He has a comparatively gay
plumage, and the various colours are disposed and contrasted in a
striking way. The intense glossy black of the head, throat, and broad
band which divides the bright greenish yellow of the under parts
lengthways, make him a conspicuous object.
[Illustration: FIG. 34.--GREAT TIT. ⅓ natural size.]
His voice, for so small a bird, is a powerful and far-reaching one;
and his frequently uttered spring call, or song, composed of two notes
repeated two or three times in succession, strikes so sharply on the
sense that it compels attention, like ringing blows on an anvil or on
the rivets of iron rails and girders, or the sound of sharpening a saw.
Saw-sharpener is one of its local names. Another thing--the oxeye is
the largest of the tits, consequently the principal member of a group
of small birds exhibiting very strongly marked characters. They differ
from most small birds, to some extent, in form, colouring, and general
appearance, and, in a greater degree, in language and habits. They are
extremely active and restless, and spend most of their time in trees,
from the bark of the trunk and large branches to the smallest terminal
twigs and leaves. In winter, when the elms and other deciduous trees
have shed their foliage, and their fine upper boughs appear like a
sombre fretwork against the pale sky, the tits are seen at their best;
they are then gathered into small flocks or family parties, and may
be observed, as they scatter about the tree, clinging to the twigs
in every conceivable position, and looking like a company of small
sober-coloured paroquets of this cold northern world. They subsist
principally on small insects and their eggs, larvæ, and chrysalids,
but are almost omnivorous in their diet, feeding on buds, seed, and
fruits, and on animal food when it can be had. A meaty bone or a piece
of bacon, cooked or raw, or a lump of suet, will quickly attract them,
as is well known. The oxeye, pretty little bird as it is, will eat
carrion like any crow, and even kill and devour other small birds as
big as himself. His rapacious habits have, however, not been very
well established. In a captive condition he will occasionally attack a
small bird in the same cage, killing it by vigorous blows on the head,
and picking out its brains; but in a state of nature the great tit
would probably be able to kill only a young or sick bird. For so small
a bird he is, undoubtedly, very resolute and strong; the rapid blows
of his short, strong bill on the bark sound like those of a nuthatch.
Like that bird, he splits open the hard shells of seeds to get at the
kernels.
The great tit is less social and gregarious than the other species
of this group; still, he does unite in small parties, and joins the
bands of mixed titmice and other small birds that form so familiar and
interesting a feature of woods and copses in autumn and winter.
The nest is placed in a variety of situations, but a covered site is
usually preferred to an open one, and nests may be found in holes
and cavities in decayed timber, holes in walls, and in old nests of
magpies, crows, and rooks. In a well-covered site the nest is loosely
built; if in an open one, such as a crow’s nest, the structure is much
more elaborate, dry grass, moss, hair, and wool, being closely woven
together, and the inside thickly lined with feathers.
The eggs vary from five to eleven in number; usually they are seven
or eight. They are pure white or faintly tinged with yellow, blotched
and spotted with reddish brown. Two broods are reared in the season.
The parent birds are very bold in defence of their eggs and young, and
vigorously attack any bird that approaches the nest, without regard to
its size. The sitting-bird sometimes refuses to leave her eggs, and
when taken in the hand will bite and hiss like the wryneck.
In autumn and winter the number of great tits is considerably increased
by a migration from the Continent.
Coal-Titmouse.
Parus ater; Parus britannicus.
Crown, throat, and front of the neck black; cheeks and nape pure white;
upper parts grey; wings bluish grey, with two white bands; under parts
white tinged with grey. Length, four and a quarter inches.
* * * * *
The coal-tit of our country (_P. britannicus_) differs slightly
from the continental form (_P. ater_), the British bird having
the slate-grey of the upper parts suffused with brown or olive, while
in the continental form the brown tinge is confined to the rump. The
European coal-tit visits our islands on migration, and doubtless
interbreeds with our bird, as intermediate varieties are found.
The coal-tit, or coalmouse, like the oxeye and the blue tit, is
generally diffused throughout the British Islands, and is not uncommon,
although nowhere abundant. In Scotland it is more local in its
distribution, being found chiefly in districts abounding in pine and
fir woods. It is believed to be increasing in numbers and extending its
range in this country. In its social habits, its flight, and its manner
of seeking its food--during which it clings to the smaller boughs
and twigs in a variety of positions--it closely resembles the other
members of its genus. It also resembles them in its language, although
a shriller note may be detected in its voice, both in its call-note and
song. It differs from other tits in its greater activity, in preferring
conifers to other trees, in going more often to the ground to feed, and
in being a greater wanderer out of the breeding season.
The nest, as a rule, is placed near the ground, in a hole in a rotten
tree-stump, or in a wall, or any other suitable place. It is composed
of moss, hair, and feathers, felted together, and lined with more
feathers. Six to eight eggs are laid, like those of the great tit
in colour. Like the oxeye, it is omnivorous, but in summer it feeds
principally on insects.
After the breeding season the old and young birds keep together,
and several families may unite and form a flock. One of the most
interesting winter sights in a wood composed of pine and fir growing
together with beech and other deciduous trees is afforded by a
wandering flock of coal-tits. As they move from tree to tree they
attract other species of similar habits--the oxeye and blue and
marsh tits, and goldcrests, and siskins, and perhaps a couple of
tree-creepers. Occasionally a party of long-tailed tits will join, and
keep with the flock for some time; but the long-tails are the most
restless and vagrant of all, and eventually hurry on by themselves,
leaving the more patient plodders behind. It is wonderful and very
beautiful to see so many species thus drawn into companionship by a
common social instinct, and by a similar manner of seeking their food;
a mental likeness serves to keep them together for hours at a time, or
for a whole day, in spite of so great a diversity in form and colour
and language.
Marsh-Titmouse.
Parus palustris.
Forehead, crown, head, and nape black; upper parts grey; wings dark
grey, lighter at the edges; cheeks, throat, and breast dull white.
Length, four inches and a half.
* * * * *
It is curious that, of the seven species of birds inhabiting this
country called titmice in the vernacular, six have been named from
some character that strikes the eye: greater size in one, a peculiar
feather-ornament in two, and in the remaining species a distinctive
shape or colour; and the names in all cases are suitable--bearded,
long-tailed, great, blue, coal, and crested. In the one case where this
rule has been neglected the name is unsuitable and misleading. The
marsh-tit may be more partial to low or wet ground than the blue tit,
and oxeye, and coal-tit, but the bird is found everywhere--in woods,
groves, hedgerows, orchards, and gardens--and in autumn and winter is
seen associating with the other species in their wandering bands. But
it would have been difficult to name this species from its colouring,
which is more uniform and sober than in any of the others. He is the
plainest of them all, but in his lively, social habits, and in his
various pretty motions and attitudes, he is one of the family; and
so strong in him is the family likeness, that some find it not easy
to distinguish marsh-tit from coal-tit, except when seen closely. In
its language, also, it is unmistakably a titmouse; but it is not so
vociferous as the oxeye and blue tit, and its tinkering voice is not so
sharp and loud.
The nest is placed in a rotten stump or trunk of a tree, an old
pollarded willow being a favourite site; and sometimes the bird
excavates a hole for itself in the decayed wood. The nest is made of
moss and hair, felted together, and lined with willow down. The eggs
are five or six in number, and are similar to those of the great tit in
colouring.
The marsh-tit is common in England, rarer in Scotland, and does not
extend to Ireland.
Blue Titmouse.
Parus cæruleus.
Crown blue encircled with white; cheeks white bordered with dark
blue; back olive-green; wings and tail bluish; greater coverts and
secondaries tipped with white; breast and belly yellow, traversed by a
dark blue line. Length, four and a half inches.
* * * * *
The blue tit is a commoner species than the oxeye, and is even more
widely diffused in this country, its range extending from the Channel
Islands to the northernmost parts of Scotland, and it has been found as
a straggler in the Orkneys and the Shetlands. All the qualities that
distinguish the tits and make them such engaging birds are found in a
marked degree in the present species--sociability; extreme vivacity,
especially in the cold season; and the power to assume an endless
variety of graceful positions when clinging to the slender branches
and twigs, upright or pendulous, of the leafless trees in winter. And
as the blue tit is more abundant, and more familiar with man, than the
others, besides having a gayer colouring, he is the favourite member of
his genus. He promises, indeed, to become in time our first feathered
favourite; for though he is without melody, and does not come to us
with a glad message, like the swallow, and has no ancient sentiment
and nursery literature, like the robin, to help him to the front, he
possesses one unfailing attraction--he is an amusing creature. Perhaps
our progenitors were less susceptible in that way than we are, and
took no notice of the tomtit and his vagaries. In winter he may be
easily won with a little food; and when he joins the mixed company of
sparrows, dunnocks, blackbirds, and starlings that come to the door for
crumbs and scraps, he is by contrast among them a ‘winged jewel’--a
small wanderer from the tropics. In works of ornithology you will
find the blue tit described as a little acrobat and harlequin, droll
and grotesque and fantastic in his ways; and if this Puck among our
feathered fairies can win expressions such as these from the gravest
scientific writers, it is not strange that ordinary folk should find
him so fascinating.
The language of the blue tit resembles that of the oxeye. Its voice is
not so powerful, but the various sounds, the call and love notes, or
song, composed of one note repeated several times without variation,
have similar sharp, incisive, and somewhat metallic qualities.
In spring the wandering little companies break up, and about the end of
April breeding begins. The nest is placed in a hole in a tree or wall,
or wherever a suitable cavity is found. It is loosely formed of dry
grass or moss, lined with wool, hair, and a quantity of feathers. Five
to eight eggs are usually laid, in some cases as many as twelve and
fourteen; in colour they are like those of the great tit, and, as in
the case of that species, the incubating bird sits closely on her eggs
and hisses like a snake when interfered with.
The blue tit is omnivorous in its diet. In summer it feeds principally
on caterpillars, aphides, and insects of all kinds, sometimes catching
them on the wing. At other seasons it eats fruit and seeds of various
kinds, buds, flesh, and, in fact, almost anything it can get.
Crested Titmouse.
Parus cristatus.
Feathers of the crown elongated, and forming when erected a pointed
crest, black, edged with white; cheeks and sides of the neck white;
throat, collar, and a streak across the temples black; all the other
parts reddish brown; lower parts white, faintly tinged with red.
Length, four inches and three-quarters.
[Illustration: FIG. 35.--CRESTED TIT. ⅓ natural size.]
* * * * *
The crested tit is one of the rarest and most local of British birds,
being restricted to a few extensive pine-forests in the north of
Scotland; indeed, there are few who know it from personal observation
in this country. Although modest in colour, it is a pretty little
bird, and its high, pointed crest gives it a somewhat distinguished
appearance. In its language and habits it resembles the other members
of the genus, and associates in the same way with birds of different
species. Like the coal-tit, it makes its nest in a hole in a rotten
tree-stump, and it will also breed in a crow’s or magpie’s old nest,
or a squirrel’s drey. The nest is made of dry grass, moss, wool, hair,
fur, and feathers, thinly felted together; and five or six eggs are
laid, white in ground-colour, spotted and speckled with brownish red.
Nuthatch.
Sitta cæsia.
[Illustration: FIG. 36.--NUTHATCH. ¼ natural size.]
Upper parts bluish grey; a black streak across the eye; cheeks and
throat white; breast and belly buff; flank and lower tail-coverts
chestnut-red; outer tail feathers black, with a white spot near the end
tipped with grey, the two central ones grey; beak bluish black, the
lower mandible white at the base; feet light brown. Length, five inches
and a half.
* * * * *
The nuthatch, although a small bird, not brightly coloured, and
scarcely deserving the name of songster, exercises a singular
attraction; and if it were possible to canvass all those who love
birds, and have not fewer than half a dozen favourites, it is probable
that in a great majority of cases the nuthatch would be found among
them. When I see him sitting quite still for a few moments on a branch
of a tree in his most characteristic nuthatch attitude, on or under
the branch, perched horizontally or vertically, with head or tail
uppermost, but always with the body placed beetle-wise against the
bark, head raised, and the straight, sharp bill pointing like an arm
lifted to denote attention--at such times he looks less like a living
than a sculptured bird, a bird cut out of a beautifully variegated
marble--blue-grey, buff, and chestnut--and placed against the tree to
deceive the eye. The figure is so smooth and compact, the tints so
soft and stone-like; and when he is still, he is so wonderfully still,
and his attitude so statuesque! But he is never long still, and when
he resumes his lively, eccentric, up-and-down and sideway motions he
is interesting in another way. One is not soon tired of watching his
perpetual mouse-like, independent-of-the-earth’s-gravity perambulations
over the surface of the trunk and branches. He is like a small
woodpecker who has broken loose from the woodpecker’s somewhat narrow
laws of progression, preferring to be a law unto himself.
Without a touch of brilliant colour, the nuthatch is a beautiful bird
on account of the pleasing softness and harmonious disposition of his
tints; and, in like manner, without being a songster in the strict
sense of the word, his voice is so clear and far-reaching, and of so
pleasant a quality, that it often gives more life and spirit to the
woods and orchards and avenues he frequents than that of many true
melodists. This is more especially the case in the month of March,
before the migratory songsters have arrived, and when he is most
loquacious. A high-pitched, clear, ringing note, repeated without
variation several times, is his most often-heard call or song. He will
sometimes sit motionless on his perch, repeating this call at short
intervals, for half an hour at a time. Another bird at a distance will
be doing the same, and the two appear to be answering one another. He
also has another call, not so loud and piercing, but more melodious:
a double note, repeated two or three times, with something liquid and
gurgling in the sound, suggesting the musical sound of lapping water.
These various notes and calls are heard incessantly until the young are
hatched, when the birds all at once become silent.
A hole in the trunk or branch of a large tree is used as a
nesting-place, the entrance, if too large, being walled up with clay,
only a small opening to admit the bird being left. At the extremity of
the hole a bed of dry leaves is made. The eggs are five to seven in
number, white, and spotted with brownish red, sometimes with purple.
When the sitting-bird is interfered with she defends her treasures
with great courage, hissing like the wryneck, and vigorously striking
at the aggressor with her sharp bill.