42 IN A CHESHIRE GARDEN 



years may pass without our seeing one coal- 

 tit; then they will become almost as common 

 as torn-tits for a year or so, when again the 

 number will dwindle down to, it may be, a 

 single pair. 



Some years ago all four kinds of tit used 

 to come together to the food-stand, but (with 

 the exception of a pair of coal-tits in the 

 winter of 1910-11) since 1899 torn-tits and 

 great-tits have had it all to themselves, 

 neither marsh nor coal-tits have been there, 

 though both are still frequent visitors to the 

 garden at all times of the year. 



In June broods of young tits appear flying 

 from tree to tree in little parties. The old 

 birds tirelessly hunt for food, whilst the 

 greeny-yellowy little ones sit expecting and 

 cheeping among the boughs. 



In comparing the marsh and coal-tits 

 together one might imagine that they each 

 originally had the same amount of black 

 allowed them for the head, but while the 

 marsh-tit preferred to have all his in one 

 patch at the back, the coal-tit w r ould have a 

 bit cut out to make a bib for his chin ! Of 

 the two the marsh-tit is my favourite. I like 

 the delicate tints of its more sober colouring 

 better than the more contrasted yet more 

 commonplace colours of the coal-tit. 



There seems something savouring of 

 meanness about coal-tits; they are cautious 

 and artful and carry away their food pre- 



