The Weakest Tit
Most of us feed our tits and some of us are lucky enough to attract all the four species : ox-eye, siggy, cole and marsh. A form of food that becomes more popular is the monkey nut, tied round its very convenient middle with a string. The watching of the various tits in their efforts to extract the nut from the tough though slender shell reveals a peculiar differ- ence in the cole-tit. A very good, though youthful observer, has discovered that of the four the cole-tit alone is unable to deal with the shell. He has to wait for one of the others to broach the store : this deficiency of strength in the jaw, a Father William's phrase, may account for the comparative scarcity of the species in many districts. It would be a fair thesis that all the four are numerous in proportion to the power of their beaks. * * *
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