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Here's a fun article on the net.

Dan Victor, Seattle, Washington <dvictor at u.washington.edu>
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Blue tits lose their taste for crime
By Michael Hornsby, Countryside Correspondent
12 May 1994


BLUE tits are going straight after more than 50 years of stealing
the cream from milk bottles.

They have lost their taste for the white stuff as health-
conscious consumers have switched to semi-skimmed and skimmed
milk, which now account for 50 per cent of deliveries.

Tim Melling, a zoologist with the Royal Society for the
Protection of Birds, began making inquiries after a woman from
Liverpool wrote to tell him that blue tits had stopped raiding
her milk.

``The first record of a blue tit pecking its way into a bottle
of milk was in Southampton in 1929,'' Mr Melling said. ``It
became common within 10 years and remained so for a long time
after the war when you could expect full-cream milk on every
doorstep.

``The birds learnt to pilfer by copying other birds and passing
the habit on to their young. Pecking through the foil takes a lot
of energy and is not a natural thing. When the birds found they
were getting little cream for their efforts, they began to give
up the habit.

``The generation of blue tits that knew gold tops were a good
thing has gone.''

Blue tits, while still common, have been in decline for some
time, though Mr Melling does not blame falling cream consumption.
``I think the cream was a kind of cherry on the cake, and not
essential to their diet.''

As blue tits have ceased their doorstep raids, new marauders
have moved in. Tony Reed, of the National Dairymen's Association,
said: ``Our main problem now is magpies. They are attracted by
the brightness of the tops, not by the cream inside. Some carry
germs on their beaks and we advise all consumers not to drink
bird-pecked bottles.''

The magpie population has been increasing for most of this
century because there are fewer gamekeepers to shoot them.


This article is copyright 1994 The London Times.