and Titmice 127 



Of course they are birds which show themselves 

 very little in public, creeping and flitting about in the 

 broad stretches of reeds in Cambridgeshire fens and 

 Norfolk broads. 



Sometimes people manage to keep in captivity the 

 beautiful little long-tailed titmouse, but he never under 

 those circumstances looks quite happy. 



Nothing is more marvellous in bird architecture 

 than the bottle-tit's nest, as this bird is called ; and 

 how such tiny bills manage to construct that wonderful 

 oval of lichen-covered moss, with the little entrance in 

 the side, is a mystery. 



A flock of these little people in winter, as they 

 follow each other in quick succession from tree to tree, 

 is a pretty sight ; their long slender tails showing 

 conspicuously. 



One would imagine that their faint squeaking 

 notes are not far off the borderland of those sounds 

 which fill the world, but which are beyond the reach 

 of the human ear. 



And a bat's squeak is shriller still. 



