JANUARY. 39 



placed in the hand, but when seen in the ever-changing 

 lights and shadows of he foliage in which the nest is built 

 they are not at all readily seen. The hedge sparrow is a 

 valuable bird in the garden, picking up insects and small 

 seeds, and he has no evil police record against him, as his 

 neighbour and namesake the common house sparrow has. 

 Another common and useful bird in the garden is the 

 beautiful little goldfinch. This summer they have not been 

 so common as usual, and have built no nests in the garden. 

 But last winter they were most abundant, lighting in small 

 flocks on the seeding heads of the cornflowers, of which 

 there were great beds. These little birds are particularly 

 fond of the seeds of composite plants, a fact which has 

 gained for them their commonest European name of 

 thistleflnch. 



Less common visitors are the little wax-eyes, familiarly 

 known as twinkies, and sometimes called blight birds,* 

 from their habit of picking off minute insects from the tree 

 stems. This last summer they discovered that fruit was 

 good to eat, and they did their best to destroy a very fine 

 crop of pears and plums. 



Occasionally we have visits from torn tits t (not the British 

 bird of that name, but a charming little black-eyed pert 

 beauty), from fan-tailed fly catchers, J both the pied and the 

 black forms, and from the small grey warblers. These 

 native birds are over confident, and consequently fall too 

 easy a prey to cats. The fantails are especially charming 

 little birds, and get so familiar that they will flit about a 

 window till it is opened, and then, boldly entering the room, 

 will pick off the small flies and spiders which are to be 

 found at this warm season of the year. Usually these 

 native birds retire to the denser parts of the bush at the 

 breeding season, but a pair of grey warblers have for some 

 years built their nest in a tall deutzia a few yards from 

 my study windows, and here they rear their young success- 

 fully year after year, 



* Zosterops cierulescens. \ Petroica macrocephala. %Rhipidura 

 fiabellifera and R. fidiginosa. $Gerygone ftaviventris. 



