i8o By Leafy Ways. 



their descendants, tenanted the same hole for thirty 

 years in succession. 



Another hole-builder, but in a different style, is the 

 nut-hatch. He selects a hollow ready-made, and if 

 the entrance is too large for his fancy he reduces its 

 size by plastering it up with mud. 



Not, however, like the hornbill Mr. Wallace writes 

 of, who imprisons his mate in her nest with a rampart 

 of mud ; feeding her indeed, but keeping her thus in 

 custody until her one chick is safely fledged. What 

 experiences of heartless desertion there must have 

 been to have brought matters to such a pass as 

 this! 



The nut-hatch is even more of an acrobat than the 

 woodpecker, for he seems to run down a tree with 

 greater ease than up it ; and when he alights on a 

 branch at some height above his nest he positively 

 appears to trickle into his hole. 



He is a pretty bird, both in his dress and his 

 manners ; and when in the winter, emboldened by the 

 scarcity of food, he even joins the sparrows who flock 

 round the door for crumbs not unfrequently driving 

 all other birds away or, clinging in graceful attitudes 

 to the dark foliage, he plunders the yew-tree of its 

 brilliant fruit, his charming ways render him an ever- 

 welcome visitor. 



But of all the dwellers in the wood by far the most 

 numerous and most easily seen are the titmice. A 

 party of long-tailed tits, as many as thirty strong, fly 



