Every species of titmouse winters with us; they have what I call a
kind of intermediate bill between the hard and the soft, between
the Linnaean 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
caeruleus), 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
straw 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.
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