THE FAERY YEAR 



the missel thrushes, they are the earliest builders 

 in the wood. I cannot remember searching vainly 

 in March for the framework of this wonderful nest 

 in spots favoured year after year. Several English 

 birds build as neatly as this titmouse. The golden- 

 crested wren, the common wren at its best, have 

 a finishing touch as exquisite as the long-tailed 

 titmouse. So too the chaffinch in some cases 

 the goldfinch. Considering the material which it 

 uses for weaving the cup to hold its treasures, a 

 blackcap is at times as cunning an artificer as any. 

 But for elaboration within and without, beauty and 

 ingenuity joined, no bird in England equals the 

 long-tailed titmouse, if the nest be begun in March, 

 and, after a fortnight or three weeks of daily 

 work, completed in April. Nests begun later show 

 scamped work, the outer layer of grey lichen being 

 thin, and the number of feathers used for the lining, 

 which should be as warm as an eider-down quilt, 

 small. I have found a few nests of this character. 

 But usually the long-tailed titmouse's nest, whether 

 built in the fork of an ash tree in the wood, or in 

 blackthorn or whin on the common, is perfect to 

 a touch. A slovenly nest is rare. There is nothing 

 like the difference between nest and nest which we 

 notice with wrens and chaffinches. 



Like the long-tailed titmouse, the golden-crested 

 wrens are withdrawing from the parties and moving 

 in pairs. I believe that much of the food they 

 search for in the spruce firs is to human vision 

 microscopic. There are people with sense of hearing 

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