Parus major, LINNÆUS; La grosse Mésange, ou Charbonnière,
BUFFON; Die Kohlmeise, BECHSTEIN.
This well-known bird is five inches and five-sixths in length, of which
the tail measures two and a half. The beak is blackish, conical, firm,
pointed, and without slope, as are the beaks of the other tits; the iris
is dark brown; the shanks are nine lines high, and lead blue; the claws
are sharp, and adapted for climbing; the upper part of the head is of a
brilliant black, which is joined to the black of the throat by a line of
the same colour that borders and sets off the white of the cheeks and
temples; the nape is greenish yellow, with some mixture of white; the
back is fine olive, and the rump pale ash grey; the breast and belly are
a yellowish green, divided lengthways by a black line.
The female is smaller, the black on the head and the yellow on the nape
are less bright; the line that runs down the belly is narrower and
shorter, at least it is lost at the part where in the male it is widest;
this marks the difference between young males and females, which are
alike in other respects.
HABITATION.--In its wild state it is found throughout the old world,
but in the greatest numbers in mountainous countries, where orchards
and groves abound, and woods of beech, oak, and similar trees, are
found alternately with those of fir. Though these birds do not
migrate, yet in autumn they assemble and pass the winter together,
seeking their food amongst orchards and woods. In autumn, as soon as
the bird-catchers see these flights of tits succeed each other
quickly, they call it their passage, and immediately prepare snares
for taking them. In March each pair separates and prepares for
breeding.
In the house, if kept in a cage, this should be of iron wire, and
bell-shaped, for the advantage of seeing the birds twirl about, and
drop from one stick to another like monkeys. If they be allowed to
range, it is necessary to supply them with abundance of the food they
like, for if this fails they will attack the other birds, and pierce
their heads to eat the brain; when once they have tasted this food
there is no longer safety for the birds around them, whatever their
size may be. I have seen an oxeye attack a quail and kill it in this
way. Some bird-catchers say that the tits with forked tails are alone
addicted to this, but they are mistaken; it is certainly true that
some are more cruel than others, experience teaches us this every
day.
FOOD.--When wild they feed on insects, seeds, and berries, destroy
many smooth caterpillars, flies, grasshoppers, gnats, and small
butterflies, and climb about the trees like woodpeckers, seeking in
the moss the eggs and grubs of insects. In autumn and winter they eat
all kinds of seeds, especially hemp-seed, fir, and pine-seed, oats,
kernels of fruit, mast nuts, and occasionally flesh. They hold these
things in their claws, tear them with their beak, and skin them with
their tongue.
In the house they will eat any thing on the table, meat, bread,
cheese, vegetables, sweet almonds, walnuts, filberts, lard, and all
sorts of fat, all pastes adapted for other birds; so that we must not
attribute their early death to the delicacy of the tits, but to the
want of care in those that have them. The more they eat the more they
sing, and the less inclined they are to attack their companions. They
drink often, and enjoy bathing.
BREEDING.--The oxeye builds in a hole of a tree or wall, sometimes in
the forsaken nest of a squirrel, crow, or woodpecker. It lays on an
artless bed of moss, wool, and feathers, eight or ten whitish eggs,
sprinkled with large and small spots mixed with streaks of dark red,
particularly at the large end, where they form a coronet. The young
do not quit the nest till they can fly well. The under parts of the
body are pale yellow; and the black about them is not glossy as in
the old birds.
DISEASES.--In a cage, this species is subject to vertigo or giddiness,
occasioned by feeding too much on hemp-seed, which heats it and makes
it twirl about too much. To cure the disorder, the bird should be
kept for some time in a small square cage, or permitted to range the
room. From the same cause often arises atrophy, consumption, and even
gout, all which proves the injurious qualities of hemp-seed; but with
care on this point and a little attention it may live eight or ten
years.
MODE OF TAKING.--The chase after tits, is, according to bird-catchers,
one of the most agreeable, and is pursued in many ways; but I shall
confine myself to two or three of the surest methods, specifying the
best for taking those birds that are for the house.
In autumn and spring, the bird-catcher should go into an orchard, or
any other place much frequented by oxeyes, carrying one with him as a
decoy; this must be placed on the ground in a small square cage, and
some sticks, with lime-twigs fastened to them, fixed obliquely around
it. The tits, attracted by curiosity, or the desire of approaching
one of their own species that calls them, quickly descend, and are
caught in the lime-twigs. A whistle made of the bone of a goose's leg
succeeds still better; with this instrument all the tits in the
neighbourhood are quickly assembled; for the tone being stronger than
the natural call, it is heard farther; if there are but few of these
birds near, they are sure to be all caught.
They are easily attracted, in winter, to a trap, by the kernels of
nuts, lard, and oats. This trap should be placed in a garden, with a
little oat straw fastened under in such a way that it may be seen at
a distance, as the tits are instantly attracted thereby. It is a
small box a foot in length, and eighteen inches in height and width,
the sides of which, when not made of small boards painted green, are
formed of small elder sticks, tied or screwed to the four corner
sticks; in this case only two small boards are required, one for the
bottom, the other for the cover, which must be fastened on with
packthread, and turn as with hinges; from the middle of the bottom
rises a peg supporting a cross stick, with a nut kernel at one end,
and a little lard at the other; this cross stick supports a small
perpendicular one, which keeps the cover open three or four inches.
When a tit hops on the cross stick and begins pecking the nut or
lard, the cover falls, and the bird is caught.
The oxeye, like the other tits, assembles in numbers at the
water-trap, commonly from seven to nine in the morning, and from four
to five in the evening.
In autumn these birds are taken in nooses and common bird-traps,
baited with berries, but the snare must be of horse hair, for if of
thread, the bird, as soon as it feels itself caught, will try to bite
through it, as mice do.
ATTRACTIVE QUALITIES.--The sprightliness and activity of these birds
are very pleasing, but their gay and lively song still more so: in it
are agreeably mingled the call "_fick, fick_" and the shrill
"_tzizerr_." Nothing, in my opinion, is more pleasing than to hear
repeated fifteen or twenty times following these striking notes,
"_sitzida, sitzida, stiti, stiti_." One may judge of the capability
of young ones to imitate the song of other birds, from the facility
with which the full-grown birds learn detached parts, and
particularly different calls.
Some people amuse themselves by making these birds perform many
little manoeuvres, such as drawing up their food with a chain,
turning a cylinder[110] which has the appearance of being moved by
two miners, and hopping after a nut suspended to a thread.