BIRDS IN THE GREENWOODS 249 



to authority. Everything should be new to you ; 

 there should be no such thing as a fact till you have 

 discovered it. Note down everything as a discovery, 

 and never mind who knew it — or knew that it was 

 not so — before. You may be wrong, of course. So 

 may the authority. But what makes authority in a 

 matter of observation ? 



To me it certainly seemed that these tits ate the 

 elm-buds. At any rate, I have broken a spray off a 

 low bough where I had seen one feeding, and taken 

 it home. On examining it I found many a little bare 

 stalk where buds had been, which suggests that they 

 had been eaten and not merely pecked at. I tried 

 several of these little buds (it was in February) myself, 

 and found them very nice and delicate. Later, in 

 April, I have noted down : 



"The buds being now larger, I can see the birds 

 pecking and tugging at them more plainly, and now 

 and then a minute bud-leaf flutters to the ground. I 

 certainly think it is the buds themselves they are 

 attacking, for their own sake." As blue-tits feed at 

 the stacks — certainly not on insects — and eat cocoa- 

 nuts, Brazil-nuts, horse-chestnuts (I believe), meat, 

 and, in fact, almost everything, it would be strange 

 indeed if they neglected such a rich pasture-ground as 

 the buds of trees would yield them, or if they did not 

 care about them. On such a day as I have described, 

 one can understand them feeding hour after hour, and 

 making themselves rotund on the tiny little buds them- 

 selves, but hardly on insects contained in them. 



The bullfinch, at any rate, is known to be a bud- 

 eater, and he may often be seen feeding on the elms, 

 in company with the blue-tit, and, to all appearance 



