284 THE RING OF NATURE 



laburnum alone, and the tits have not yet dis- 

 covered them. 



I have got now on the field of my binocular 

 a dainty little marsh tit in silver and grey with 

 brilliant dark eyes. He is hopping along all the 

 sprays of a wild rose, and every now and then he 

 pushes his embroidery-scissors beak into a leaf- 

 bud that is not quite tightly rolled. The morsel he 

 extracts must be microscopic, yet" the quivering of 

 the mandibles and the action of the throat indicate 

 that it is something to keep the engines going. 



The birds are here to clean off the superfluous 

 grubs, pupae and eggs, so that next year's vegetation 

 may have some sort of a chance. It is quite clear 

 that, hungry and numerous as they are at the 

 beginning of autumn, they will never exterminate 

 a single species. Before the last bird discovered 

 the last well-hidden animal morsel he would 

 himself be on his last legs. In fact, it is only a 

 select band that remains to carry out the last 

 search before the long-hidden army of spring life 

 discovers itself by walking abroad. The young 

 birds at the bottom of the class are ' plucked ' 

 before October is finished. They fall into the 

 maw of weasel, stoat, or hawk, even if they do not, 

 as later ones do, perish from starvation. There 

 were too many birds. An infinite number of 

 nestlings were of the highest use for the getting 

 under of infinite hoards of present and future 

 locusts, but when they had been so used their 

 surplus, too, must go. 



