116 LONG-TAILED TIT. 



adder, infuriated at feeling hoggy's teeth griping her back, 

 lashes her head against a skin less vulnerable than that 

 once said to have been worn by a Mr. Achilles. The 

 pluck and power of both is tried to the utmost, but hoggy 

 is almost sure to triumph in the end, and the adder, half 

 devoured, is often found next morning by the countryman, 

 who wonders " how he come so mauled." I take it that 

 the spiny coat of the hedgehog is Nature's defence against 

 the poison fangs of his favourite prey. 



Yesterday was St. Valentine's day.* I had the good 

 luck to meet with a companion as idle as myself, and as 

 fond of the smell of the fresh air; and, without horse, 

 dog, or gun, we wandered up the sandy lane leading to 

 Eshing. Near the top of the lane we observed a whole 

 family of the LONG-TAILED TIT threading the branches of 

 an elm tree, in search of insects. The little fellows are all 

 fluff and feather ; they seem to have no body at all, but to 

 consist of a lump of down, nearly round, with one long 

 feather stuck in the middle of it for a tail : their cry is 

 weak, peevish, and often repeated, and when frightened 

 away from one tree they go off to another in regular order, 

 all in a line, jerking up and down, and holding out their 

 long tails in a straight line behind them : in this party 

 were fifteen, no doubt the hatch of a single pair last year. 



On the old bridge at Eshing we were delighted to see a 

 whole colony of that lovely little flower, DRAB A VERNA. 

 Although it was the first time I had seen this beautiful 

 forerunner of spring, it seemed, from the quantity in flower, 

 to have been blooming for two or three weeks. I brought 

 home several plants of it ; one is now before me, growing 



* Dated 15th February, 1835. E. N. 



