COLE TITMOUSE.
Y BENLOYN LYGLIW, IN ANCIENT BRITISH. COLEMOUSE.
Parus ater, PENNANT. MONTAGU. Parus atricapillus, BRISSON. Parus—A
contraction of Parvus—Little ? Ater—Black.
The Cole or Coal Titmouse is dispersed over Europe,
and occurs in North America, and the northern parts of Asia, as well
as in the Crimea, Palestine, and elsewhere; it is also found in Japan,
according to M. Temminck. It suits itself to the genial climate of
Italy and severe Siberia, and inhabits alike Russia, Germany, Norway,
Finland, Turkey, Sicily, Greece, Sweden, and France.
The Cole Titmouse is to be met with in every part of England—
north, east, south, and west. It is by no means rare, and yet can
hardly be said to be an abundant species. In Yorkshire it occurs in
wooded districts. In the immediate neighbourhood of London it is not
uncommon, and has even been seen in the great metropolis itself, but
doubtless only 'en passant.' Mr. Edward has observed it in the neighbourhood
of Banff; Mr. Thompson about Aberarder, Invernesshire; and Mr. St.
John in Sutherlandshire, in plenty, as also at Wick; in fact, in Scotland
it is a very abundant species in all the pine and fir woods; birch,
oak, and alder it is also partial to. In Ireland it has been observed
in the counties of Donegal, Clare, Kerry, Cork, Tipperary,Wexford,
and Dublin, and therefore there is no doubt but that it may at times
be met with in every part of the 'Sister Island.' It is there more
numerous than the Marsh Titmouse, the reverse being the case in England.
This neat little bird abides with us throughout the year, but is seen
more abundantly in the winter, in consequence of partial migrations.
Though this species may be observed on almost any or every tree at
times, the Scotch fir seems to be that in which it is most at home.
It is of an apparently restless disposition, moving like 'Young Rapid,'
from place to place, from hedge to hedge, from tree to tree, from
wood to wood, from district to district. It is addicted to woods,
as supplying its food, but I have met with it in ordinary cultivated
districts, plantations, gardens, etc. It frequently seeks its food
on the ground.
It is more shy than the preceding species or the Blue-cap. I copy
the following life-like description of this interesting little bird
and its associates, from Mr. Macgillivray; its truthfulness I can
fully attest:— 'It is pleasant to follow a troop of these tiny
creatures, as they search the tree tops, spreading all round, fluttering
and creeping among the branches, ever in motion, now clinging to a
twig in an inverted position, now hovering over a tuft of leaves,
picking in a crevice of the bark, searching all the branches, sometimes
visiting the lowermost, and again winding among those at the very
tops of the trees. In wandering among these woods you are attracted
by their shrill cheeping notes, which they continually emit as they
flutter among the branches, and few persons thus falling in with a
flock, can help standing still to watch their motions for a while.'
It is also observable how suddenly, without any apparent cause, the
whole troop, as if under marching orders, decamp in a body from a
tree, and halt elsewhere, again to go through their exercises, evolutions,
and manoeuvres.
Its flight is short and unsteady, produced by a continual flutter.
The food of the Cole Titmouse consists of insects, worms, caterpillars,
and seeds. In search of the first-named it will pick with extreme
rapidity all round in a circle, without so much as disturbing a single
'sere and yellow leaf,' though perched on the centre of its under
side. It is said to be particularly fond of the berries of the woodbine,
and to hold any hard seed with its feet against a branch, and peck
at it till it obtains the kernel. The same with the seeds of the thistle,
on which I have watched one alight and hang on the plant to pick off,
and then fly up with to the bough of a neighbouring tree on which
it hammers it, with a loud tapping, to separate the down from the
seed. In the winter it also feeds on wheat and oats, and appears to
hoard up some portion of a superabundant supply of food against a
day of scarcity. Occasionally it will pick a bone or other fragment,
with much zest. Small fragments of stone are swallowed to help to
triturate its food. It picks up oddments on the ground at times, seeds
of fir and such like. Mr. Edward Blyth says in the 'Magazine of Natural
History,' volume viii, page 336, note, 'I once, however, put a nest
of young Goldcrests into a large cage containing several insectivorous
birds, in the hope that one out of the number would have brought them
up. A Cole Tit descended, seemed very much interested, and looked,
I thought, as if he would have fed them; when, lo! he seized one of
them by the neck, placed it between his claws, and began very deliberately
to eat it. There is, therefore, a little of the Magpie even in this
tiny delicate species.'
The note, which is first heard in February, is unmusical, and is rendered,
by Meyer, by the syllables 'zit, zit,' and 'zit-tee,' 'che-chee, che-chee'
may also serve to express it. In the spring it is very loud, and may
be heard nearly as far as that of the Oxeye: suspended for the most
part until August, it is then renewed. When the female is sitting,
at least towards the end of her confinement, she hisses at any approaching
enemy, and will also bite if molested. Mr. Knapp says of this species
and the Oxeye, that 'they will often acquire or compound a note, become
delighted with it, and repeat it incessantly for an hour or so, and
then seem to forget, or be weary of it, and we hear it no more."
At the beginning of winter, when the plumage is new, all the feathers
of the back are tipped with brownish yellow, which wears off into
bluish grey in summer, and those on the lower part of the front of
the neck, from being tipped with white, turn altogether black.
The nest is placed in a hole of a tree, and according to Mr. Hewitson,
at a less height from the ground than that of the other Titmice, even
in the hollows about the roots; sometimes in a hole of a, wall, or
of a bank, quite close to, or even on the ground, or in that of a
mouse, rat, or mole; one was thus; found in a bank at Swinhope, Lincolnshire,
by my friend the Rev. R. P. Alington. It is made up of moss, wool,
hair, fur, and feathers. This bird, like the Oxeye, and doubtless
others of its race, will enlarge a hole for its accommodation by removing
the pulverized particles of wood which have partially filled or lined
it.
The eggs, from six to eight in number, are like those of its fellows
—white, spotted or speckled, but seldom blotted, with light
red.
Incubation lasts about a fortnight, the male and female sitting by
turns: the young are fed principally with caterpillars. Two broods
are hatched in the year, of which the first is fledged in May.
Male: weight, about two drachms and a quarter; length, four inches
and a quarter; bill, blackish or dark horn-colour, lighter at the
edges and tip; iris, dusky; head, white on the sides, black glossed
with blue on the crown; neck, white on the sides, black near the wing,
with an oblong patch of white. Chin and throat, black; breast, dull
white in the middle; below, and on the sides, light buff with a tinge
of green; back, bluish grey above, verging to brownish buff: the feathers
are singularly long, as is the case with most of the other Titmice.
The wings, underneath, grey; they expand to the width of seven inches
and a third; greater and lesser wing coverts, bluish grey, the feathers
tipped with white, forming two bars across the wings; primaries, brownish
grey, edged with greenish grey on the outside, and on the inside with
greyish white; the first feather is very short, the second shorter
than the third, and equal to the seventh; the third, fourth, and fifth,
of nearly equal length, and the longest in the wing; secondaries,
the same; tertiaries, the same, tipped with dull white. The tail,
which is slightly indented at the end, and extends a little beyond
the wings, is brownish grey, the feathers margined with greenish,
underneath grey with white shafts; upper and under tail coverts, greenish
buff; legs, toes, and claws, very dark lead-colour; the latter are
rather thick.
The female resembles the male. The black on the head is less glossy,
and does not extend so far down, and the white is less pure: the grey
of the back is tinged with greenish brown.
The young resemble the female: the first feathers have a tinge of
green.
A variety is described in the 'Zoologist,' page 3055, by the Rev.
Francis K. Amherst, in which 'the white mark on the nape of the neck
was continued in a broad and well-defined line, over the crown of
the head to the upper mandible.' Mr. W. P. Cocks also one, shot near
Falmouth, which had a broad white crest from the forehead to the nape
of the neck; and the Rev. R. Wilton has told me of another which had
a single white feather in the tail. Another has been known with the
head, neck, and part of the back and breast white, slightly marked
with black spots.
"There comes a saucy Tom-tit, and says a word or so."
ANNETTE P. C KNIGHT.