314 ODD HOURS WITH NATURE 



proportion of the buds produced by trees in the 

 summer for next year's development go wrong. 

 The subject is known to foresters who have studied 

 it as " natural pruning," and if it were not carried 

 out, trees would fall under their own weight. A 

 large part of this pruning is effected by insects, 

 which deposit eggs in the buds, from which hatch 

 grubs. When the tits search the tree, hanging on 

 to the twigs in every possible attitude, they are 

 hunting and finding those grubs, dragging them 

 out and making a meal of them. With their robust 

 beaks they can tear a bud to fragments and extract 

 the morsel which lies within it. The whole tribe 

 has incurred some enmity as bud-destroyers, and 

 though it is possible that they do destroy healthy 

 buds, it is likely that the great majority of those 

 they attack are recognized by them as already 

 tenanted by a destroyer of another kind. 



The gold -crest, tiny midget of a bird that it 

 is, could not tear a bud in the strong-headed 

 manner of the great tit ; but in its own way it 

 finds and consumes immense quantities of minute 

 insect -life in its dormant winter state. In all their 

 movements gold-crests resemble the tits, being, 

 however, even more ceaselessly on the move. They 

 prefer evergreens, particularly fir, spruce, and yew- 

 trees, among the needles of which countless 

 numbers of small things must lurk which amount 

 to nothing in human eyes. But trees which, like 

 the alder, bear catkins are almost equally interest- 

 ing to them, and appear to yield them a rich feast. 

 The tree-creepers are the most specialized members 

 of the company. More exclusively insect -feeders 



