128 BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND 



netting- over the avairy was small enough to keep siskins 

 inside, but the great tit, as we afterwards found, was not to be 

 kept within the wires. It turns its body sideways, puts awing 

 through first and then its head and then squeezes the body 

 out — exactly the same procedure, that is, reading arm 

 instead of wing, as the professional child-burglar's in India. 

 If the great tit cannot get out of its prison, it commits suicide. 

 For it thrusts itself so far throu^-h the wires or netting;- that it 

 cannot move one wav or the other, and is stranoled. 



Dr. Gunther elsewhere gives an instance of fearlessness 

 which is no doubt paralleled in animal history, but certainly 

 never excelled, and for once I must break my rule and make 

 a quotation in honour of the bird of Rowfant. So many 

 vaguely authenticated stories are current that one, on such 

 authority, is very valuable. " In the year 1888 a pair of great 

 tits began to build in a post-box which stood in the road in the 

 village of Rowfant, Sussex, and into which letters, etc. were 

 posted and taken out of the door daily. One of the birds was 

 killed by a boy, and the nest was not finished. However in 

 the succeeding year, it appears, the survivor found another 

 mate, and the pair completed the nest, filling nearly one half 

 the box with moss and other nesting materials. Seven eggs 

 were laid and incubated, but one day when an unusual number 

 of post-cards were dropped into and nearly filled the box, the 

 birds deserted the nest, which was afterwards removed with 

 the eggs and preserved. In 1890 the pair built a new nest of 



