BLACKBIRDS, NIGHTINGALES, ETC. 321 



times into low tangles and bushes, sometimes, too, 

 across the road again and into different parts of the 

 fir-hedge. " They keep, for the most part, together, 

 and whenever they are near enough I hear their soft, 

 subdued little ' chit chit' As lichen, which is what 

 they are now principally collecting, is everywhere 

 about on the trunks of trees, etc., it would seem as 

 though even a minute would be a long time for them 

 to take in getting a piece and returning with it, if 

 they took it at random ; and the inference appears to 

 be that they exercise choice and selection, and return 

 each time from the nest with a definite idea of the 

 kind of bit they want next." 



I will here quote, from my notes, an observa- 

 tion I made on the way these little birds roost at 

 night, which may, perhaps, be of interest. " On my 

 way back I noticed some object which I took to be 

 a dead bird, in a tall, straggling brier-bush that formed 

 a kind of bower, inside which one could stand up 

 Thinking that this bird might have been transfixed 

 by a shrike, I came right under it, and, pulling 

 down the branches with my stick, to my astonishment 

 the object separated and became four little, fluttering, 

 ' chittering,' long - tailed tits that had been sitting 

 wedged close together. I stood perfectly still, and 

 after they had ' chit, chitted ' a little, and made a 

 few little hops about the bush, two of them came 

 back from different directions to just the same place, 

 snoozled up to each other and were settled again for 

 the night. Very soon, a third hopped on to the two 

 backs and pressed himself down between them, taking 

 no denial, and, indeed, not receiving any. The fourth 

 remained a little longer apart, perhaps for ten minutes, 

 X 



