202 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



round, on one side or another, examining and 

 manipulating the edges; and sometimes, bending it 

 down over the rim, he presses or arranges a lichen, 

 on the outside. This, however, he does more rarely 

 than one would think, his best attention being 

 given to the interior. Sometimes, too, he flutters 

 his wings in the nest, as though to aid in the 

 moulding of it. There is one extraordinary power 

 which these tits possess, which is that of turning 

 their bodies quite round in the nest, whilst keeping 

 the tail motionless, and in exactly the same place 

 all the time. I have often seen — or seemed to see 

 — them do this, but as the tail sticks upright, and 

 is — till the cup gets too deep — a very conspicuous 

 object, it would not be easy to be mistaken. 

 How they do it I know not — they are little con- 

 tortionists — but I have often noticed how loosely 

 and flexibly the long tail feathers of these birds 

 seem just stuck into the body. There is another 

 thing that I have seen them do, viz. turn the head 

 entirely round without any part of the body seeming 

 to share in the movement ; but here, I think, there 

 must have been some hocus-pocus. 



I have spoken of these tits having but one way 

 of entering and leaving the nest, even when all 

 ways lie open to them : but, more than this, they 

 have one set path, by which they approach and 

 retire from it. You first notice this when one of 

 the birds passes, inadvertently, on the wrong side of 

 some twig or bough, which makes a conspicuous 

 feature in its accustomed path. The eye is caught 

 by the novelty, and you realise, then, that it is one. 

 This happens but rarely, and, when it does, it has 



