In the house they will eat any thing on the table, meat, bread, cheese, vegetables, sweet almonds, walnuts, filberts, lard, and all sorts of fat, all pastes adapted for other birds; so that we must not attribute their early death to the delicacy of the tits, but to the want of care in those that have them. The more they eat the more they sing, and the less inclined they are to attack their companions. They drink often, and enjoy bathing.
Breeding.—The oxeye builds in a hole of a tree or wall, sometimes in the forsaken nest of a squirrel, crow, or woodpecker. It lays on an artless bed of moss, wool, and feathers, eight or ten whitish eggs, sprinkled with large and small spots mixed with streaks of dark red, particularly at the large end, where they form a coronet. The young do not quit the nest till they can fly well. The under parts of the body are pale yellow; and the black about them is not glossy as in the old birds.
Diseases.—In a cage, this species is subject to vertigo or giddiness, occasioned by feeding too much on hemp-seed, which heats it and makes it twirl about too much. To cure the disorder, the bird should be kept for some time in a small square cage, or permitted to range the room. From the same cause often arises atrophy, consumption, and even gout, all which proves the injurious qualities of hemp-seed; but with care on this point and a little attention it may live eight or ten years.
Mode of Taking.—The chase after tits, is, according to bird-catchers, one of the most agreeable, and is pursued in many ways; but I shall confine myself to two or three of the surest methods, specifying the best for taking those birds that are for the house.
In autumn and spring, the bird-catcher should go into an orchard, or any other place much frequented by oxeyes, carrying one with him as a decoy; this must be placed on the ground in a small square cage, and some sticks, with lime-twigs fastened to them, fixed obliquely around it. The tits, attracted by curiosity, or the desire of approaching one of their own species that calls them, quickly descend, and are caught in the lime-twigs. A whistle made of the bone of a goose’s leg succeeds still better; with this instrument all the tits in the neighbourhood are quickly assembled; for the tone being stronger than the natural call, it is heard farther; if there are but few of these birds near, they are sure to be all caught.
They are easily attracted, in winter, to a trap, by the kernels of nuts, lard, and oats. This trap should be placed in a garden, with a little oat straw fastened under in such a way that it may be seen at a distance, as the tits are instantly attracted thereby. It is a small box a foot in length, and eighteen inches in height and width, the sides of which, when not made of small boards painted green, are formed of small elder sticks, tied or screwed to the four corner sticks; in this case only two small boards are required, one for the bottom, the other for the cover, which must be fastened on with packthread, and turn as with hinges; from the middle of the bottom rises a peg supporting a cross stick, with a nut kernel at one end, and a little lard at the other; this cross stick supports a small perpendicular one, which keeps the cover open three or four inches. When a tit hops on the cross stick and begins pecking the nut or lard, the cover falls, and the bird is caught.
The oxeye, like the other tits, assembles in numbers at the water-trap, commonly from seven to nine in the morning, and from four to five in the evening.
In autumn these birds are taken in nooses and common bird-traps, baited with berries, but the snare must be of horse hair, for if of thread, the bird, as soon as it feels itself caught, will try to bite through it, as mice do.
Attractive Qualities.—The sprightliness and activity of these birds are very pleasing, but their gay and lively song still more so: in it are agreeably mingled the call “fick, fick” and the shrill “tzizerr.” Nothing, in my opinion, is more pleasing than to hear repeated fifteen or twenty times following these striking notes, “sitzida, sitzida, stiti, stiti.” One may judge of the capability of young ones to imitate the song of other birds, from the facility with which the full-grown birds learn detached parts, and particularly different calls.
Some people amuse themselves by making these birds perform many little manœuvres, such as drawing up their food with a chain, turning a cylinder[110] which has the appearance of being moved by two miners, and hopping after a nut suspended to a thread.