134 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



to seek for food. Sparrows, chaffinches, and 

 yellow-hammers are to be seen every day at 

 the barn-doors, pecking what they can find ; 

 a-nd Mary has shewn me the larks, sheltering 

 themselves in the stubble ; and the thrushes, 

 blackbirds, and even fieldfares, nestling together 

 under the hedges, as if endeavouring to console 

 each other. 



While the ground was covered with snow, I 

 saw the black-headed titmouse come every day 

 to a thatched shed in the yard, and with its back 

 downwards, draw out the straws lengthways 

 from the eaves of the shed, in order to seize the 

 flies concealed between them ; and I assure you, 

 such numbers came to one spot, that they quite 

 spoiled the appearance of the thatch, Mary 

 says they are very useful in searching for the 

 larvcs of the tortrix, those ingenious caterpillars, 

 that disfigure the leaves of fruit-trees by rolling 

 them up for their houses. Gardeners, she says, 

 are very ungrateful to these birds ; for, sup- 

 posing that they attack the blossoms, they are 

 destroyed without mercy. They are, however, 

 eaters of bees, so that they must be considered 

 somewhat mischievous. 



\ They are easily tamed and taught little tricks, 

 such as drawing up a bucket. Mary placed 

 some almonds yesterday on a sheltered bank ; 

 in a short time one of these little black-heads 

 came, and grasping the largest of them in his 



