LONG-TAILED TITS 83 



crumbs before them, and can peck them up, they 

 still stand shaking their wings and begging to be 

 fed. 



I was very much amused the other day ; I 

 heard an infantine cry at the window, and going 

 there, found a young nuthatch asking a torn-tit to 

 feed it. It was funny to see the eagerness of the 

 large helpless baby, and the indignant astonish- 

 ment, not unmixed with alarm, of the little tit. 

 It was an old blue tit, and accustomed to fly before 

 the beak of the nuthatch, but quite at home with 

 me. And there it stood with one claw in the 

 plate, staring first at me and then at the nut- 

 hatch, which opened its great beak and shook its 

 wings in the most childish manner, until at last, 

 tired of waiting, it flew away. 



A flight of long-tailed tits passed through the 

 garden yesterday. They were gone in no time ; 

 like a flight of arrows they came from the limes to 

 the sycamore. One stayed just to feed a young 

 one, and then away again. I enjoyed the passing 

 sight of them though : directly I hear that well- 

 known fluting, of which I heard so much last 

 spring, I am on the qui vive. But they will never 

 stay here now that houses and gardens have taken 

 the place of orchards. 



Some birds seem to appreciate more highly 

 than others the comparative shelter that a garden 



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