Chapter V: Summer Workers (2)

This species prefers warmer districts, where it remains chiefly in leafy woods. The bird is a charming little object as it disports itself amongst the young green of oak and beech woods. When on the lookout for its prey it prefers to perch on some old withered tree branch. And so gentle and small it looks one would not dream of its injuring a fly. Yet, for the great benefit of the woods, it is keen in pursuit of flies, gnats and other “small deer.” It will agitate its little wings in front of the larger hollows in old trees, so as to create a slight wind which will rouse and bring out lurking insects to become the prey of this disturber of their peace. In the high beech woods this Flycatcher pounces on the little insects that play in the rays of sunlight that filter through the openings between the branches. A beautiful bird this and well deserving protection.

In Great Britain this species is far less numerous than its congener. It is, however, a regular visitor to some of our counties. Its song is like that of the Redstart.

THE PIED FLYCATCHER.]

THE WHEATEAR.

(_Saxicola œnánthé._)

This is a lively and vigilant bird. It selects a district, to which it afterwards remains faithful. It likes fallow ground, stony hollows, marsh-land, sandy depressions where there are undulations, also meadows where there are grass-grown mole-hills or grass plots. From one of these small eminences it surveys the surrounding land, and on seeing prey instantly makes for it, and having caught it flies on to another stone or hillock. It also perches on low posts, but only takes to a tree in case of need. As it prefers to be in the open, it is often visible, for when it begins to fly it spreads out its tail and the white feathers at once attract attention. It is a very useful bird, for it lives entirely upon grubs and insects. In autumn it destroys the caterpillars of the white cabbage butterfly. The modest little song is not heard only from the hillocks and stones on which it perches, but also high up in the air when wooing his bride with sweet sounds. It is fairly common in Hungary.

* * * * *

About the middle of March the Wheatear, with its graceful motions, begins to arrive in numbers on our own Southern and Eastern coasts. It flits over downs and fallow lands, some pairs remaining to make nests in old rabbit holes, and in sandy warrens near the coast, others passing on after a brief rest, seeking higher latitudes--the rocky moorlands of the Peak, the fallows of

THE WHEATEAR.]

agricultural districts in the Midlands, the mountains of Scotland. The old hole of a Sand-martin in a railway cutting, a crevice in a stone wall, the lee side of a boulder stone, or merely the shelter of a clod of earth in a fallow field serves his purpose. As regards a nesting site, the Wheatear is exceedingly adaptable, suiting himself to the locality. And so the popular names given to this bird seem often misleading to a student of its life-history. In the Southern counties as the “Fallow Chat” it is best known, in Lancashire and Derbyshire it is “Walltack,” “Stonecheek,” “Stone-smack,” or “Smutch”: and this in Staffordshire is “Stone Smasher.” But tack and cheek and smutch all come from the bird’s sharp note “Chack, chack!” uttered as it flits from stone to stone on high land or along the wind-swept downs and warrens.

* * * * *

Steinschmätzer is the German name for the Wheatear; so the Lancashire name of Stonesmatch is decidedly Saxon. Schmatzen is to kiss heartily--to give a good smack in fact. The French name for this bird, Traquet, was given because of the continual movement of the wings and tail, which is compared to the traquet, or clapper of mills, which is kept in motion by the wind or by the water.

* * * * *

All works on natural history describe the beautiful Wheatear as always wary and shy to a degree, and chiefly, as we have already said, to be found on warrens and poor lands near the coast, but as being especially plentiful about our South Downs. In other districts, too, it frequents the open ground and rough hillocky pastures. But who would look for the Wheatear amongst the old slag-heaps, in the very heart of the North Staffordshire Potteries? where, too, the bird seems to lay aside its shy and wary little manœuvres.

Mr. Wells Bladen, the well-known Staffordshire ornithologist, reports on the Wheatear, which arrived earlier than usual, telling us that he saw one on a slag-heap at Etruria on March 3rd. In April again he witnessed the curious sight of five Wheatears, mobbing a Kestrel on their slag-heap and driving off the intruder quickly. In June there were at least a dozen of these birds frequenting the heap, and one pair had nested within twenty feet of a very busy railway siding. The nest, with its lovely pale blue eggs, was in a hole in a bank of fused clinkers, two feet from the ground. The eggs were hatched safely, but the young birds were unfortunately killed by some mischievous person before they were old enough to leave the nest. It was a pity the bird made its nest so near the ground, for, as a rule the great heaps which railway passengers between Stoke and Crewe have seen and wondered at, by night as well as by day, are little interfered with, or trespassed on. The dreary slag-heaps in the neighbourhood of blast-furnaces would appear to be spots equally unattractive to man and beast, and especially so to that brightly marked migrant the Wheatear, as it is known on the sunny, wind-swept downs and sandhills near the sea. In August again, one was seen on a railway waggon.

Wheatears leave us by the beginning of October, but now and again a few stray birds are said to winter here in mild districts.

The Wheatear has the crown, back of the head and back a beautiful ashen-grey; throat a faint buffish-white. There is a black stripe from the bill to the eye, which broadens out towards the ear. Underparts nearly white, breast yellowish. The side feathers of the wings are white towards the base--at the end black; the middle feathers entirely black. Bill awl-shaped, and, like the legs, black. The female bird and the young are less varied in colour. The Wheatear hides its nest away in heaps of stones, and crevices of the earth, and is most discreet as a rule in ensuring its safety. It lays five eggs, occasionally seven, which are usually of a uniform pale-blue colour, sometimes faintly dotted.

THE STONECHAT.]

THE STONECHAT.

(_Pratíncola rubícola._)

This lively little bird--that is the male bird--has the following characteristics: head, throat, nape, and back black. A conspicuous white patch on the wing-coverts. Under wing-coverts and axillaries black and white. Bill small and awl-shaped, legs and feet black.

* * * * *

It hides its nest so well, that it is difficult to find. It is usually built on the ground in a slight dip, so that the heads of the fledglings are level with the surface of the ground, and thus it merges into its surroundings. Five bluish grey eggs, speckled with brown, are usually found in the nest.

* * * * *

The Stonechat is a very pleasant bird, that seems, wherever it may be, to live by itself. It always sits on the topmost part of a bush, and thence looks attentively on to the ground, yet is quite conscious of all the insects and chafers flying about, for it is an alert captor. Sometimes it looks as if it were turning a summersault in the air, which is always a sign that it has disturbed a beetle in its flight and snapped him up.

* * * * *

This little Black-throat is more a bird of the foothills, where it loves the rocky dips where a few bushes render these not quite bare. It will suddenly appear on the top of a bush, the point of a moth-mullein or a nettle--always on a high perch--gives one look round, swallows an insect, and disappears as if by magic. Soon after it will appear in another spot, and go through the same performance. Meanwhile it wags its little tail, spreading it out. Late in the autumn, before its migration, it comes nearer to human dwellings, and carries on its pursuit of insects, among the hedges. It even ventures into the kitchen garden, where the cabbage stumps, and vegetable stalks are a favourable position, from which it can easily secure its prey. Its song is clear, pleasing, but not loud. Its call is “_Weet, weet, weet--tek, tek, tek_.”

The birds arrive in Hungary singly.

* * * * *

In Great Britain the Stonechat is a resident in most parts, although such as have bred in the colder districts migrate to more sheltered places in winter. At that season we have a number of arrivals from such parts of the Continent as are too cold for these birds to remain in. Grubs, worms, insects, and beetles are its chief diet, to which it adds a few small seeds. A very destructive insect which they take is known as the Bean Weevil. It is about a quarter of an inch in length; and it finds lodging among the whins, which the Chat family frequent. This beetle also haunts the rhubarb flowers in our gardens and visits the peas, selecting, it is said, always the finest of these in which to lay her eggs. Daddy-longlegs, cattle-flies, wire-worms, small snails, and slugs are also eaten by the Chats--especially the Whinchat, _Pratincola rubétra_, which comes to the South in middle of April, reaching the North early in May. It has a long white streak over the eye, which is a distinguishing feature of this species, also its underparts are buff, turning to bright fawn colour on the breast and throat. The crown and upper parts are mottled equally with sandy-buff and dark brown. Its bill is less delicate than that of the Stonechat.

THE BEARDED TIT OR REEDLING.

(_Panurus biármicus._)

The Bearded Tit is the ornament of the Reed-lands. Its feathers being unusually fine and light, the brilliant black moustache gives it all the more charming and attractive an appearance. It usually slips round in the high reeds about which it clambers very cleverly. The nest is placed between the stalks of the reeds, and is composed chiefly of their leaves, the colour of which harmonises with that of the bird’s long tail, so that the latter, which stands out of the nest, cannot be distinguished from its surroundings. The clutch consists of five to seven eggs, which have light brown specks and stripes on a white ground.

With the disappearance of the reeds, the number of the birds diminishes.

That is why we have not in England so many of this lovely species as we used to have. Our fens and meres in Lincoln, Huntingdon, and Cambridge Shires, as well as in Kent, Sussex, and Essex, also in Suffolk having been drained, the birds that lived in these have naturally left them. We are glad, however, to know that Bearded Tits are increasing again in the Norfolk Broads, owing to protection from the greed of private collectors. The great naturalist, Buffon, declared that the male bird has the charming habit of covering his mate with his wings to protect her alike from unkind winds and the burning heat of the sun, as she sits on her nest. _Trinkin_, the peasants of Anjon call it because of the metallic tone of its cry. In the Norfolk Broads it has been known as the Reed Pheasant. Scientists have found that this species differs in its digestive organs and other points from the Titmouse family, and that it is, as the late Professor Newton remarks, a perfectly distinct form, representing the family Panuridæ, instead of forming one species of the Paridæ.

It feeds on the seeds of the reeds in winter and in summer on small molluscs.

This bird, which is a beautiful and delightful bird in every respect, is the size of a Yellow-Hammer. Its feathers are of a silky fineness. The head is bluish-grey; from the corner of the mouth on each side, hangs a pointed, silky black moustache, which can be raised erect on occasion. The nape and back are cinnamon brown, which is lighter over the root of the tail; the tail is deep black underneath, and is wedge-shaped with feathers of graduated length. The wings are striped with buffish-white, black and rufous; the quills are brown with white outer borders. The throat and chest are snow white, the under parts white with a flush of rose colour at the sides. The pupil of the eye is golden yellow.[4]

THE GREAT TITMOUSE.

(_Parus major._)

In respect to usefulness and activity, this bird takes the foremost place among the Tits: restless, noisy, and always cheerful from morning to night. It clings to the end of the twigs, head downwards, to look for insects underneath the buds; it even climbs up walls if they are rough and uneven. It slips into holes and crevices which seem impossible of entry. It pursues insects everywhere, and swallows them wholesale, as though it could never be satisfied. It has no fear of men, but comes confidently under the roof and perches on the gate, or looks in at the window from the window sill. It is courageous, even bold, and boundlessly inquisitive, a trait which often places its life and liberty in peril. For the sake of a little fat it will allow itself to be snared in a gourd or other trap. But it is just these qualities that make it so popular.

Its voice sounds like “_tzit_” or “_sitzida, sitzida_.” This beautiful, kindly bird deserves every protection.

* * * * *

Our sympathies are quite with this bright active creature, although some of our English naturalists accuse it of using its strong beak in order to split the skull of small weakly birds so as to feast on their brains. It has even been known to treat a Bat in this manner. We recognise it readily in the early spring by its note which is like the noise caused by the sharpening of a saw with a file.

Two years ago I saw the largest company of Tits--Great Tits, Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Marsh Tits and Crested

THE GREAT TITMOUSE.]

Tits--together with a great number of tiny and beautiful gold-crested Wrens, that I have ever seen, or indeed can ever hope to see again. It was in a pine forest about twenty miles north of Gotha, the property of Hans Freiherr von Berlepsch, Germany’s most ardent bird protector. He was with us at the time and he said even he had never seen the like before, nor had his chief gamekeeper, who is himself an ornithologist. It was the more wonderful because we had walked for nearly three hours through the woods that morning and had seen, with this great exception, little wild life beyond an occasional black Squirrel and, through an avenue of pines from afar, a grand Buck feeding in a clearing. It was in the late autumn.

Nearly three thousand nesting-boxes have been fixed in the trees there, and it was about one of these, a deep one, that a number of Tits had appropriated as a warm and secure sleeping place for the autumn and winter, that the birds--three hundred of them at least the gamekeeper declared--had gathered; now pouncing down on it, a dozen of them at a time, now settling in noisy zi-zi-zi-ing parties on the high branches of pine round this centre. Perhaps, like Rooks that quarrel over a desirable nesting site, they were all eager to secure specially desirable sleeping quarters. Tits and Wrens do, of course, always go about the woods in parties, when family cares are over, but on such a scale as this rarely; and so many dainty Golden-Crested Wrens together might not be seen again in a life-time. All the species of the Tit family, excepting the Bearded and the Long-tailed Tit were there.

The amount of good these birds do among forest trees is incalculable, not to mention their greatly misunderstood labours in ridding the blossoms of our fruit trees of their infesting insect pests. Tits are, in fact, most energetic and active insect destroyers.

* * * * *

The Great Tit is a lively bird about the size of a Sparrow. The crown, neck, and throat black; cheeks white. A black stripe runs from the throat over the breast and under parts. The mantle is bright green; rump, tail, and wings plum colour, with oblique whitish stripes on the wings. The under side of the body is a beautiful bright yellow on either side of the black stripe. The short, strong beak is shaped like a grain of wheat and brown in colour; the strong legs are bluish. It builds its nest delicately, and usually in such hollow places as have a narrow opening, sometimes even in empty beehives. It lays six to nine--sometimes, though rarely, as many as fifteen--eggs, which are finely formed, of a pure white, with speckles of a beautiful rust colour.

THE BLUE TITMOUSE.

(_Parus cærúleus._)

Crown bright blue, forehead and cheeks white. A dark stripe is drawn from above the eyes towards the nape. The white cheeks are edged at the back and underneath, with black. The under part and rump are sulphur-yellow, or rather lemon colour. Tail and wings blue, like the bloom on a ripe plum. There is an oblique white stripe on the wings. The beak is like a little grain of wheat. Legs bluish. The nest is placed in holes of trees with small opening and is composed of soft stuff and is very lightly built. The clutch consists of seven to ten eggs, which are like those of the Great-tit, only much smaller. As many as eighteen eggs have been recorded as being found in one nest.

It is one of the prettiest and most useful birds, and in its actions resembles the other Tits. The number of insects destroyed by these rises into millions, and it has been observed that one pair, in the course of seventeen hours brought food to their young 475 times. Its cry is clear and piercing: “_Tgi, tgi, tgi_”--or “_Ze, ze, zirr_,” or “_Ze, ze, he-he-he-he-he_.”

It is a real treasure, and not rare in Hungary.

* * * * *

The Blue-tit is one of our best known and best liked British birds. In the autumn great numbers arrive on our east coasts. The Blue-tit, especially, devours a powerful tiny beetle with the ominous name of Scolytus destructor, which works its way from the chrysalis stage at the end of a tunnel bored by the mother beetle in the tree, until it comes out, after biting a round hole in the

BLUE TITMOUSE. GOLD-CRESTED WREN.]

bark, as a perfect beetle. By this small creature’s labours the bark is separated to such an extent from the tree that it cannot live long. A plague of other small wood-boring beetles of like habits destroyed 1,500,000 trees in the Harz Forest one season, when the priests even prayed in their churches for relief from this awful pest. And yet there are still numbers of country gardeners who look upon the Blue-tit, especially, as one of their worst enemies.

* * * * *

A house with large grounds in our populous London suburb is a large boys’ school--a private one. One day I saw a pretty sight, one that did credit to the character of the boys there. Between the playground and the cricket field is an iron fence, having a wide gate. For some time this has not been properly closed, and just within the hole in the tubular iron post, into which the fastening bolt ought to run, a pair of Blue-Tits have their nest. As I approached it, a number of gaping mouths were thrust up for food. As the nestlings are fed with aphides and gooseberry moths and the old birds have a large family to feed, and they prey also on grubs and maggots, it is well for the vegetable garden close by.

About sixty boys pass noisily to and fro through this gateway during play-hours, but the wise parents think they know better than to feed them in the sight of these. All is done during school time and early in the morning.

A friend tells me that he knows of a Blue-Tit’s nest in an exactly similar position. When the bird was sitting he kicked the bottom of the iron post, and put his finger in the hole. Up flew the bold little creature, hissing like a snake, and bit vigorously at it, fully justifying her rural nickname of Billy-biter.

I am glad to think that some of my schoolboy neighbours will read this, and will know that their forbearance towards these little birds is appreciated: a forbearance towards the defenceless which is always a distinguishing characteristic of the true gentleman.

The Blue-Tit is of great service to all flower and fruit growers, and it comes much to our suburban, and even London gardens. And yet gardeners at one time persecuted the little labourer, one of the prettiest and most winsome of our common birds.

Sitting in the garden of a house I formerly lived in, I noted there, in my apple trees laden with fruit, that the Tits--the Great, the Marsh, the Coal, and the Blue-Tit--that had not been much in evidence since April, when they were busy amongst the blossom buds, have come back, and they were busy now again amid the branches. Having read lately that they destroy the fruit, notably apples, in the autumn, I have watched them closely. It is as I expected: a number of the apples have been attacked by insects, and it is on these that the birds are busy, on fruit which if they did remain on the trees--they are now falling in numbers--would be quite worthless. The Tits enlarge the holes so as to get at the true destroyers, and they are doing more good than harm. As the Rev. F. O. Morris said, long ago, “the destruction of the Blue-tit by the farmer or gardener is an act of economical suicide.”

Tits will also sometimes have recourse to the orchard in times of drought, in order to quench their thirst by bites at the fruit. But we should be churlish indeed if we grudged our little unpaid labourers a small tithe of our harvest, which is the larger for their spring services.

THE GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN.

(_Regulus cristatus._)

This is the very smallest of our British birds, and indeed of all European species. It is found generally throughout Great Britain, and it has increased in the north greatly of late years owing to the greater cultivation of larch and fir-trees. The numbers of these Wrens are augmented often in autumn by great flocks that come to our eastern coast from the Continent. A migration wave of this sort, Mr. Howard Saunders told of, which lasted 92 days, and reached from the Channel to the Faroe Islands. Another migration in 1883 lasted 82 days, and one, the following year, 87 days. On such occasions bushes in gardens on the coast are covered with birds as with a swarm of bees; crowds flutter round the lighthouse lanterns, and often come to grief there, and weary little travellers climb about the rigging of fishing-smacks in the North Sea.

* * * * *

The Golden-Crested Wren is even smaller than the Common Wren, but its feathers are more flossy. It has on its crown a tongue-shaped patch of warm saffron yellow edged with black. The whole of the rest of its coat is of a plain greenish gray, which is lighter on the under parts of his body. The colour of the wings is also sober, the feathers having a lighter edge; the little beak is thin and pointed, the legs nearly black. The cunningly built nest is placed in the fir-trees where it can with difficulty be discovered. The eggs, which number six, occasionally eleven--of the size of peas--are reddish speckled with a darker shade of the same colour. This useful little bird, always active, hopping unweariedly about seeking food, lives exclusively on insects and grubs. Its dwelling is among pines and fir-trees; it often associates with the Tits, its call is “_Sit, sit, sit_.”

It is not rare, and is worth its weight in gold.

THE CRESTED TITMOUSE.

(_Parus cristátus._)

In order to learn habits of the Crested Tit it is necessary to climb high into the region of the firwoods. Here the Crested Tit is the good genius of the neighbourhood, for with untiring zeal it hops about among the thick branches of the fir labyrinth and destroys the most mischievous insects. Its call is “_ziárrrr_” or “_zick güirr_.” It is not rare in the pine forests of Hungary.

* * * * *

The Crested Tit breeds in a few of the oldest forests in Scotland where firs and oaks remain. In Perthshire it is seen, but to England it is a stranger, a few cases only, being on record. In Ireland also it is practically unknown.

* * * * *

The Crested Titmouse is much smaller than the Great Tit or Oxeye. It is easily recognised by its pointed head, which resembles that of the Crested Lark. The feathers of this are black, edged with white; the cheeks white; throat and round the ears black; so that the head has the appearance of being framed. Wings and tail greyish-brown, the feathers with whitish edges. Underneath it is a dingy white, rust colour at the sides. Its nest is carefully built, in holes and in trees. It lays from five to eight, sometimes ten, white eggs speckled with light rust colour. Two broods are generally brought out in the season.

These birds are seen in Germany, and elsewhere on the Continent, frequently in company with Golden-crested Wrens, other Tits and also Tree-creepers.

CRESTED TITMOUSE. COAL-TITMOUSE.]

THE COAL-TIT.

(_Parus ater._)

This lively, pretty, amiable bird, also lives in the thickest parts of the fir woods, where it carries on its work of destroying the injurious insects, the number of which is enormous. It used to be thought that the Coal-Tit did harm to the young buds; but this has never been authenticated, and even if it does break one off here and there, the mischief is small indeed, in comparison with the service it performs from one year’s end to the other. Its call is shrill and clear “_ziwih, ziwih, ziwih,_” or “_sitt, sitt_”--or a long-drawn “_seeb, seeb_.”

This bird occurs in considerable numbers in Hungary.

* * * * *

The Coal-Titmouse is one of our common birds in the United Kingdom and it is said to increase yearly, although it is not yet so common as the Great and the Blue Tits. It is a very useful little bird as it feeds its young largely on green caterpillars; but it eats nuts as well as seeds--the seeds of the Scotch fir it is specially fond of.

The Marsh-Titmouse--_Parus palústris_--is another resident species in Great Britain, but it is, with the exception of the Crested Titmouse, the least common of our Tits. I have seen it much about our Middlesex gardens, a superficial observer can note the difference between this bird and the Coal-Tit easily because the Marsh-Tit has not the white patch on the back of the head which the Coal-Tit has. It is often seen in orchards where it does good service, but is fond of the neighbourhood of rivers and delights itself among the alder trees and pollarded willows of swampy ground.

The Coal Tit is the same size as the Crested Tit. Cheeks white--at the back of the head a white patch, the rest of the head black, so that this colour forms a broad bridle, which recalls that of the great tit. Underneath it is of a dingy white, the mantle a bluish ash-colour with a tinge of green. Wings and tail dark grey, the former having two oblique whitish stripes. The nest is built on the ground, in holes in fir trees under decaying bark, sometimes in holes in the ground--and is formed for the most part of green moss, the interior being warmly lined with hair. The clutch consists of six--sometimes even ten--eggs of a brilliant white finely speckled with rust-colour.

THE LONG-TAILED TIT.

(_Acredula caudáta._)

This is a true Tit, and never rests, but is hunting here and there, slipping in and out, in constant movement, from morning till night, now and then indulging in such gymnastic exercises on the frailest twigs, as would by comparison make the limb-dislocating mountebank look a clumsy lout. Nothing can be more charming than the society of which the Long-tailed Tit is the grand master. It comprehends the Great-Tit, the Blue-Tit, and the Coal-Tit, one or two tree runners, Spotted Woodpeckers and a Nuthatch. The whole form a brigade of workers, who rove through the woods and gardens, each one working according to the measure of its strength. They search a tree, from the bark to the point of the thin topmost twig, where the Long-Tailed one is quite at home, so light a featherweight is his body--the twig bends, but does not break, and the tail acts as its balancing pole. This society gathers at the same hour at the same place, in the late autumn, in order to seek fresh places. The note of the Long-Tailed Tit sounds like “_je, je, je,_” and “_gey, gey, gey, gey_.” It lives on injurious insects, and wherever it builds its nest in wood or garden it is a priceless treasure.

It is not rare in Hungary, and deserves to be protected.

* * * * *

There are various forms of the Long-tailed Titmouse in Europe; our own form is fairly common in localities which suit its mode of living. It is resident and common in Ireland, but very local in its occurrence in Scotland. These Tits often rear two broods in a season, and afterwards the whole family may be seen flitting about

LONG-TAILED TIT.]

together, in single file from hedgerow to hedgerow. There is a dipping motion in their flight which is pretty to watch. All these feed on insects and their larvæ.

The Long-tailed Tit is the size of the Wren; a round-headed little bird with a tiny beak, and a very long tail. The head is white, and suggests that of a grey-headed old grandfather. The fore-part of the back is black with white patches on the shoulders, the tail black, the three outer feathers being for the most part white, and graduated in length, the two middle feathers being shorter. The under part is rose colour; the tiny beak black.

THE NEST OF THE LONG-TAILED TIT.

It is not only in our latitudes that the nest of the Long-tailed Tit is considered a masterpiece, but even far away south where nature works such marvels, where the little humming birds, scarcely bigger than the joint of a child’s finger, shine in the sunlight like diamonds and rubies, and build nests no bigger than half a small hen’s egg,--even there, this nest is looked upon one of the finest specimens of bird architecture. It is the most charming, most beautiful, and warmest bird abode. Most often it is round, the twigs supporting it like the fingers of the hand, and often it stands free like a little beehive. It is beautifully roofed in with a domed top, and has at the side an opening large enough for a big bumble bee. It is constructed of the finest moss, and the softest fluff from the meadows and poplars; it is soft, and yet so strongly put together that no human workman can imitate it.

In this soft, warm nest the tiny bird lays its nine, sometimes eleven, eggs. These are white with rose-coloured spots at the thicker end. The male and female birds sit alternately on the eggs for fourteen days; and then the hard work begins--twelve babes to nourish, and with the finest food!

The industry of the Swallow is truly great, but that of the Long-tailed Tit is still greater. The Swallow seizes its booty while on the wing, and has only to open its beak; but the Tit has to go from branch to branch, working sometimes head downwards, sometimes swinging, in order to secure the tiny morsels.

Truly he who does not delight in the sight of this tiny family united by love, who is not moved when the twelve baby birds are seen sitting close pressed together on a slender bough, and the little parents come and go, with their continuous cry, bringing food and giving it in turn to the young ones--he whom such a sight does not fill with pleasure, must have a stone in his breast instead of a heart.

THE TREE SPARROW.

THE HOUSE SPARROW.]