COLE TITS 



123 



come and eat first, and then the little hen takes 

 his place. She is curiously small, and seems as 

 light as thistledown, and her wings quite cross 

 over her back ; there is something distinctly 

 feminine and infantine about her ways. Perhaps 



that is why the other (Tit-willow I call him) is so 

 careful of her. Careful he certainly is, as the 

 incident I am about to relate will prove to any one 

 who will believe it ; it is likely enough that no one 

 will do so who has not seen it, and that is why I 

 send no account of it to ' Nature ' or the ' Selborne 



