194 MUTTON BIRDS 



we discovered another Tit's nest in a site 

 excellently adapted for photography. The 

 gnarled bole, already half dead, in which this 

 last found nest was placed, furnished less 

 resistance to the wind ; standing more in the open 

 it offered better conditions of light, and lastly 

 was rooted in low granite cliffs. 



From the beginning, too, the pair of Tits 

 owning the nest proved most amenable. I was 

 allowed even that first afternoon, to look into 

 their home at close quarters and to see their 

 nearly nude quintet fed. 



Next morning was occupied in watching the 

 Bush Creepers' movements in the thicket, and 

 the afternoon spent in getting the pictures of 

 Tits facing pages 188 and 190. Both male and 

 female had become by this time perfectly 

 careless of our presence and carried in 

 their stores of food along certain well- 

 established lines of flight, about nine feet 

 from the ground. As I wished to have 

 the sexes on one plate it was decided we 

 should again visit the nest the following day, 

 and in the meantime leave the legs and tripod in 

 position, wrapped up in oil-skin coverings. Next 

 morning, however, although the female sat, the 

 male never approached the nest, and after 

 the lapse of some considerable time my surprise 

 began to give place to anxiety. Some accident, I 

 feared, must have happened. At length, how- 

 ever, I caught a glimpse of him in the scrub some 

 yards distant; and looking, as I then and there 

 jotted down, "furtive and mysterious." 



I have already alluded to the possibility of 

 extremely exact interpretation of the subtler 

 shade's of expression of emotion in birds, and 

 now again do so. The adjectives, scribbled in 



