TUNING UP 



THERE is an early phase of the spring madness 

 of the birds which so far has little to do with 

 love. A quickening of the pulses, an accession of 

 vitality, comes with lengthening days. Spirits are 

 rising high with the temperature and call for 

 liberation. They are highest in the case of the 

 early nesters. Here, for example, are the tits. 

 They are high-spirited little animals at the worst 

 of times, but they are pre-eminently summer 

 nesters, and it is still winter with them. They 

 have not broken up their companies, and they come 

 all day long to feed on the lump of suet hung 

 up for their benefit. The note of the great tit has 

 risen in shrillness and frequency, and the saffron (or 

 is it sulphur?) of his breast is perceptibly brighter 

 than a month ago. But he is not yet thinking of 

 love, and he is not more sportive than it is his 

 prevailing habit to be. With the blackbird it 

 is very different. He is in the jocund mood of 

 early spring, and in a very few days he will rise 

 to the blithe heights of pugnacity and fight all- 

 comers of his kind just because he feels astonish- 

 ingly vigorous and fit. 



To watch the ongoings of the blackbirds as 

 February advances is a pure pleasure. Here are 



