TREE-CLIMBING BIRDS 159 



group in size, and most conspicuous in note and 

 plumage, is the Great Titmouse. 



Tlie Great Titmouse is the true harbinger of 

 spring, giving notice of its coming just as the 

 Willow Wren announces its actual advent. In mid 

 February there usually comes a day which differs 

 from all those which have preceded it. The fields 

 are still bare, and the woodlands dark and lifeless, 

 but we are sensible of an indescribable difference 

 since our last visit in chill December. Then 

 Nature seemed dead ; now- we know that it was 

 sleeping, and that it is about to wake. For some 

 weeks the voices of the Thrushes and the Robins 

 mav have been heard, but these birds are winter 

 singers, and their notes bear no especial promise 

 that the great seasonal change is at hand. But 

 when the clear, ringing cry of the Great Tit comes 

 from the topmost boughs of the trees, one looks 

 instinctively for the springing of the earlier flowers, 

 and there is no longer room to doubt that we are 

 leaving the wintry days behind. 



The Great Tit is a handsome and active bird, 

 bold, with a touch of aggressiveness in his bearing, 

 which is altogether wanting in the gentle warblers 

 — even in the militant Robin himself. 



It may be noted that when he descends from his 

 swinging post on the lilac-tree, his black and white 

 head glistening in the sunlight, to join the feast on 

 the lawn, that the small birds already assembled 

 give him a wide berth. In this they are acting not 

 without reason. Although I have never witnessed 

 in the open an act of murder on the part of the 

 Great Tit, I think there is little doubt that he will 



