GREAT TITMOUSE.
Y BENLOYN EWYAF, IN ANCIENT BRITISH.
OXEYE. BLACK CAP. GREAT TITMOUSE, TOMTIT. GREAT BLACK-HEADED TOMTIT. SIT-YE-DOWN. TOM COLLIER. SAW-SHARPER.
Parus major, PENNANT. MONTAGU. BEWICK. Parus—A contraction of Parvus—Little ? Major—Greater.

The plague of British ornithology, useless novelties in nomenclature, according to the 'Whims and Oddities' of every self-styled 'Field Naturalist,' may be illustrated by the example of the name of 'Parus hortensis,' or 'Garden Tit,' assigned to the Oxeye, as if it were more a frequenter of gardens than the Blue-cap, and therefrom claimed a new specific name!
Mr. Macgillivray, in discussing the affinities of the genus at the head of which, in this country at least, the Oxeye stands, gives it as his opinion that the family of the Titmice is allied to that of the Jays, and there is certainly some sort of cousin-germanship between them.
The gay party-colour of this species—the chief of its clan—makes it a great ornament to our country. It is abundant in wooded districts, less so in others. This remark applies to each of these Islands.
It is common in Russia, Holland, Italy, and various other countries of Europe, so far north as Norway and Sweden, and is also said to be met with in Africa, near the Cape of Good Hope, in Algeria, and the Canary Islands; as well as in Asia, in Siberia, Persia, Palestine, Crete, and Asia Minor, where it has been seen by my friend, Hugh Edwin Strickland, Esq. One was met with in the Atlantic, nine hundred and twenty miles from the nearest land. In England, Ireland, and Scotland, it is plentiful.
The Oxeye remains with us all the year round, but evidently makes partial migrations, whether caused simply by the quest of food or no, I know not.
Mr. Hewitson has well observed of the Titmice, that they are perfect mountebanks; it making no difference to them in their gambols and antics whether their heads or their heels are uppermost. This species, however, is less of a Harlequin, except indeed, in plumage, than some of its congeners. It is a bold and courageous bird, and bites vigorously if captured, or if approached in the nest will often fuff and strike with its wings instead of flying off. In confinement it becomes tolerably tame, and even in its wild state will come to the window-sill for crumbs of bread. Other smaller birds frequent its vicinity without any apparent fear, notwithstanding its occasional destructive propensities, but it attacks them furiously if they advance against its nest. More than two or three of this species are seldom seen together, nor does it associate much with its generic relatives. It is not at all a shy bird. One which Bewick kept, used to rest at night on the bottom of the cage.
The flight of the Oxeye is usually short—from tree to tree, performed by a repeated flutter of the wings, but if its travel be farther it is somewhat undulated.
Its food consists principally of insects, small caterpillars hid in leaves, and seeds, which latter, if hard, it holds in its bill, and knocks against a tree till it breaks the shell; the sound is often heard at a considerable distance, resembling that made by a Woodpecker—even hazel nuts it demolishes in this way. It also pulls off the moss from trees, to pry for the insects underneath, destroys a few bees at their hives, and makes some small havoc among the peas in a garden. It sometimes seeks its food on the ground, but for the most part in trees, where it exhibits much of the fantastic agility of its race. It may be seen at times hanging under the eaves of a thatched cottage, from which it pulls out the straws in quest of concealed insects. It has also been known to eat small birds, killing them by repeated taps on the head, and shews the same carnivorous propensity in the readiness with which it will pick a bone, or make a meal of a carrion. It often holds any food between its feet, and then pecks away at it, swaying its body both up and down, and sideways in doing so.
The provincial name of this species, ' the Oxeye,' has in my opinion no reference to a derivation from any such origin as that of the synonym of the ' Boopis' and ' glaucopis Athene,' but has been given to it from its note, which, in the spring, resembles this word often repeated—a low and a high note in succession, gradually changing in the mutual intonation of the parts as the season advances, at first being merely one note thrice repeated; and it has also, in addition to a chatter, another which resembles the word ' twink.' I know no bird whose voice, though monotonous, is more cheerful and exhilarating in connection with the returning spring. It begins its merry 'oxeye, oxeye, oxeye,' which bears a strong resemblance to the filing of a saw, about the beginning of March, and continues it till the middle of May. It has, however, says Mr. Thompson, been heard so early as the 23rd. and 24th. of December, the 5th. of January, and the end of January, when, at the latter date, there was ice an inch thick on the pools. It is loud, so that it may be heard at the distance of half a mile. It has been likened by the country people to the words—' sit-ye-down.' It changes in a very evident manner as the season advances. This bird has been known to imitate most exactly the song of the Garden Warbler.
The nest is usually made in a hole of a tree or of a wall, or crevice of a rock; sometimes the forsaken nest of a crow or magpie is converted into a tenement. I have had one in my garden which built in the hollow of an old tree nearly down at the ground. Not unfrequently it is placed in a pump, either used or unused, the door-way being by the orifice for the handle. Sir Charles Anderson, Bart., wrote me word of a pair, which thus built for many successive years, ten at the least, although each year the nest was destroyed by the working of the handle. I have known one on the side of a roof under the tiles, another between the boughs of a tree, only some three or four feet from the ground. Mr. 1ST. Wood in his book observes:—'The organ of secretiveness is probably amply developed in this species, as it commonly conceals its nest with great circumspection, often beyond the reach of the schoolboy; and is very jealous of being observed near the nest!' Is this so great a peculiarity in a bird, or is it meant to be illustrative of the practical utility of the so-called science of phrenology? Another has been known to build far up among the rafters of a house; one in a window frame, the entrance being through the opening for the weight; and another under an inverted flower-pot. It is composed of a quantity of moss, feathers, leaves, hair, and other materials loosely compacted. Occasionally the eggs are laid on the dust of the wood alone, and if I may offer a conjecture on the subject, possibly these cases may be when a first nest has been taken or destroyed, and the bird is in a hurry about her second brood. Since writing the above, I perceive that Montagu has made a similar suggestion. In some cases a hole is worked out for itself in the decayed wood of a tree. Miss Gertrude Lewis Lloyd, of Nantgwilt, has known the nest built in February, as she has written to me. The same site is often frequented from year to year, if its tenants are not disturbed. The Rev. George Snowden, of Stainland, near Halifax, has written me word of his having once found the nest in the wall of a house exclusively composed of rabbit's fur; all the corners of the hole were filled with it, and in the middle was a most exquisitely-formed round hollow, and altogether it was exceedingly pretty and comfortable.
The eggs, from six to eleven in number, are pure white, or white with a tinge of yellow, dotted all over irregularly with reddish brown. The hen sits closely on them, and the male keeps a station not far off, both of them equally pugnacious in defence of their progeny, the latter uttering loud cries of anger or distress, and the former hissing as she sits. The young are said, after they have left the nest, not to return to it, but to perch for some time in the neighbouring trees, and to keep together until the following spring. It is somewhat singular that the eggs of this bird resemble those of the Nuthatch, to which bird it also has some similarity in the loud tapping noise it occasionally makes against the trunks of trees, and which has been conjectured to be for the purpose of frightening insects out from under the bark.
Male; weight, about ten drachms; length, six inches and a quarter; bill, black; the upper part has a broad festoon on the edge—a characteristic of all the Titmice; iris, dusky brown, lighter on the sides and at the tip; head, black on the crown, white on the sides, sometimes tipped with yellow; neck, bluish black in front, and banded on the side with the same, and behind the white patch. The nape has a few white feathers on it, making a spot; chin, black, united to the black on the nape; throat, black; breast, yellow, tinged with green, divided all down the middle by a broad black line; back, olive green, bluish grey below.
The wings expand to the width of ten inches, and extend to one third of the length of the tail; underneath, they are bluish grey; greater wing coverts, bluish black, edged with olive green, and tipped with white, forming a bar across the wings; lesser wing coverts, bluish, and some greenish ash-colour. Primaries, dusky bluish, edged with grey, except the first two, and tipped with bluish white, except the first three; they are margined on the inside with white, and on the outside with blue, excepting the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth, which are white on the narrower part, and the inner three, which are yellow: the first feather is very short, the second not so long as the third, the fourth a little longer than the fifth, and the longest in the wing, being a little longer than the sixth. Secondaries and tertiaries, the same, edged with greenish white, the white of the latter being broader; greater and lesser under wing coverts, white; tail, dusky bluish, darkest on the inner webs, the outer feathers white on their outer webs more or less, and on part of the inner webs towards the tip of the feather, the others margined with bluish grey; it is the latter colour underneath. Upper tail coverts, bluish grey; under tail coverts, white; legs and toes, dark lead-colour; claws, dark brown.
The female resembles the male in plumage, but the colours are less bright. Length, five inches and three quarters to six inches; head, dull black; breast, dull yellow; the black band narrower, and not quite so far extended downwards. The wings expand to the width of nine inches and a half.
The young male has the black streak narrower than in the adult bird, but continued all the way.
Lewin has recorded a curious variety of this bird, which had the upper and lower bills crossed.

"He crept out at a crevis of the wall. And lightly to the woode dyd gone."
Adam Bell, Clym o' the Clough, and William of Cloudesley.—Percy's Reliques.