BIRDS IN THE GREENWOODS 237 



often to be found there in colonies — they would be 

 all ready to become specialised experts. At least it 

 appears to me so, and I think it the more curious 

 because they do not seem often to practise what they 

 can do so well. Here is my note, taken in October, 

 when, perhaps, there would be a little more scarcity 

 of the ordinary food of such birds, than in the spring 

 and summer of the year. 



" In a grove of Scotch firs this morning I noted, 

 first a blue-tit, clinging to the trunk of one in the 

 same manner as a nut-hatch or tree-creeper. Hardly 

 had he flown off it when a wren flew to and com- 

 menced to ascend perpendicularly the trunk of a 

 tree quite near me, flying thence to another which 

 it also ascended, and so on from tree to tree. After- 

 wards, however, I was able to watch blue-tits acting 

 in this manner for some little time, as well as quite 

 closely, and I decided that they were the greater 

 adepts of the two. They climbed the perpendicular 

 or overhanging trunk with ease and swiftness, cling- 

 ing to the roughnesses of the bark, at which they 

 pecked from time to time, I imagine for insects. 

 Usually they went straight upwards, but sometimes 

 more or less slantingly. I also noted — and this I 

 had not been able to do for certain in the wren — 

 that they descended as well as ascended the trunks 

 of the trees ; but here the manner of progressing 

 was not quite so scansorial, for it was with a little 

 flutter. Whether they used the feet as well as the 

 wings in the descent I could not actually see, but 

 they kept quite near enough to the trunk to have 

 done so. These little fluttering drops or drop-runs 

 interested me very much. The bird never made 



