The blue titmouse, or nun, is a great frequenter of houses, and a
general devourer. Beside insects, it is very fond of flesh; for it
frequently picks bones on dung-hills: it is a vast admirer of suet,
and haunts butchers' shops. When a boy, I have known twenty in a
morning caught with snap mousetraps, baited with tallow or suet. It
will also pick holes in apples left on the ground, and be well
entertained with the seeds on the head of a sunflower. The blue,
marsh, and great titmice will, in very severe weather, carry away
barley and oat straws from the sides of ricks.
How the wheat-ear and whin-chat support themselves in winter
cannot be so easily ascertained, since they spend their time on wild
heaths and warrens; the former especially, where there are stone
quarries: most probably it is that their maintenance arises from the
aureliae of the lepidoptera ordo, which furnish them with a
plentiful table in the wilderness.
I am, etc.
Letter XLII
To Thomas Pennant, Esquire
Selborne, March 9, 1775.
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