CHAPTER XXIII 



THE BLUE TITMOUSE 



Around some of the Broadsmen's homes grow tree-mallows, 

 or " pick-cheese trees," as they are locally called — the seeds 

 of this plant, called " pick-cheeses," bearing a faint resem- 

 blance to a cheese. The blue tit is extremely fond of these 

 pick-cheeses, whence he has been called locally the " pick- 

 cheese," and thus is explained an etymological problem that 

 has long puzzled the ornithologist and philologist. 



And a brave little bandit is this blue-headed bird. Indeed 

 he is as beautiful as he is brave, and as charming as he is 

 beautiful. He is well armed, too, as you may test by letting 

 him get a peck at your finger; but look out lest he carry 

 off a bit of flesh. And in the early spring, when the fruit 

 trees are breaking and the sleepy bees are recovering, the 

 blue-headed tit is busy playing havoc, eating the somnolent 

 bees and pulling the hearts from the buds. A mischievous 

 bird is he in a garden, nearly as harmful as the thieving 

 sparrow, where the year round you may see them "in 

 twoses," as the Broadsmen say — and I often wonder if they 

 pair for life. 



And when the slipshod nest of twigs, grass, horse-hair, 

 wool, and feathers is being built in some hole in the wall 

 or tree, or in some crack in an old barn or mill, occupied 

 year after year, you may, if you like, test their perseverance. 

 Do but pull out their new nest, and they will build again ; 

 or, if you catch them building in a hollow tree, go day after 

 day and cut the door of their stronghold larger and larger ; 

 still will they persevere in their labours, and go ahead with 



