The smaller and
weaker coal titmouse (Parus ater) has adopted a more vegetarian diet,
eating seeds as well as insects, and feeding on the ground as well as
among trees. The delicate little blue titmouse (Parus coeruleus), with
its very small bill, feeds on the minutest insects and grubs which it
extracts from crevices of bark and from the buds of fruit-trees. The
marsh titmouse, again (Parus palustris), has received its name from the
low and marshy localities it frequents; while the crested titmouse
(Parus cristatus) is a northern bird frequenting especially pine
forests, on the seeds of which trees it partially feeds. Then, again,
our three common pipits--the tree-pipit (Anthus arboreus), the
meadow-pipit (Anthus pratensis), and the rock-pipit or sea-lark (Anthus
obscurus) have each occupied a distinct place in nature to which they
have become specially adapted, as indicated by the different form and
size of the hind toe and claw in each species. So, the stone-chat
(Saxicola rubicola), the whin-chat (S. rubetra), and the wheat-ear (S.
oenanthe) are more or less divergent forms of one type, with
modifications in the shape of the wing, feet, and bill adapting them to
slightly different modes of life.
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