40 IN A CHESHIRE GARDEN 



torn-tit was there. Another time I made a 

 longish block of wood, bored nearly through 

 with holes, which were filled with fat smoothed 

 off level with the surface. This block was 

 hung with the holes downwards, so that from 

 above it could look like a bit of wood only. 

 It was hung up at 10.30 a.m., and at 11.30 a 

 torn-tit had found it out, and was eating away 

 at the fat as he clung to the block back 

 downwards. 



Tom-tits, unlike great-tits, bully one 

 another most unmercifully. They can recog- 

 nize each other at a great distance. A tom- 

 tit on the food-stand seems to know at once 

 whether another arriving on the nearest tree, 

 some ten yards or more away, is his superior 

 or inferior in prowess. Sometimes he will 

 rufHe up his feathers as if in resentment at 

 threatened intrusion, at other times he is 

 prepared to make way at once. As is the 

 case with a herd of cows on a farm, the 

 relative standing between them seems to be 

 an acknowledged matter and is seldom con- 

 tested. To us a couple of torn-tits appear 

 as like as two peas if we have them actually 

 in the hand, and though it is easy to under- 

 stand that they can themselves distinguish 

 differences at close quarters, and may have 

 some other sense than we have to help them, 

 yet it is a marvellous thing that they can do 

 so without doubt or hesitation at a distance 

 of yards. 



