JANUARY 25 



and then the sparrows found out how nice 

 it was. At regular intervals in the short 

 winter days, the titmice come to feed 

 about four of each kind. There is the 

 great tomtit, masterful and quarrelsome. 

 The cole-tit, very brisk and persevering; 

 the little blue-cap, most lovely and timid 

 and yielding in its ways, and that other tit 

 which is almost the cole-tit with a differ- 

 ence. It may be the male cole, or it may 

 be the Nun. It was on a morning in last 

 June that a mother cole-tit tiny and 

 fascinating little mite ! brought out her 

 newly flown brood to introduce them 

 to me and the cocoa-nuts. I watched 

 from the oak-room window, which exactly 

 faces the line of rose arches. The little 

 mother pecked out little beakfuls of nut, 

 darting to and fro with flits and flirts of 

 wings and tail, feeding the young, and 

 trying to teach them how to get at the 

 food for themselves. After a time they 

 all flew ; and for several minutes the side 

 of the yew hedge was alive with minute 

 tits climbing and clinging all over it. 

 Then they got back to the nuts, and one 



