164 THE LONG-TAILED TITMOUSE. 



to their actions, will in general be certain of the 

 creature that flits past, by the manner of its flight, 

 or that utters its note unseen by the peculiarity of 

 voice; but the tribe of titmice (parus), especially 

 in the spring of the year, emit such a variety of 

 sounds, that they will occasionally surprise and 

 disappoint us. Hearing an unusual voice, and 

 creeping with caution to observe the stranger from 

 which it proceeds, we perceive only our old ac- 

 quaintance, the large tomtit (parus major), search- 

 ing for food amid the lichens on the bough of an 

 apple-tree. This bird, and that little dark species, 

 the " coal," or {C colemouse" (parus ater), in par- 

 ticular, will often acquire or compound a note, 

 become delighted with it, and repeat it incessantly 

 while sporting about the catkins x of the alder, for 

 an hour or so, then seem to forget or be weary of 

 it, and we hear it no more. 



Our tall hedge-rows and copses are frequented 

 by a very amusing little bird, the long-tailed tit- 

 mouse (parus caudatus) . Our boys call it the long- 

 tailed torn- tit, long-torn, poke-pudding, and various 

 other names. It seems the most restless of little 

 creatures, and is all day long in a state of progres- 

 sion from tree to tree, from hedge to hedge, jerking 

 through the air with its long tail like a ball of 

 feathers, or threading the branches of a tree, se- 

 veral following each other in a little stream ; the 

 leading bird uttering a shrill cry of twit, twit, twit, 

 and away they all scuttle to be first, stop for a second, 

 and then are away again, observing the same order 



