190 THE TITS 



trives to get fed. Judging from the dives each parent occasionally 

 makes into the far corner of the nest, not a single one is overlooked, 

 but receives in turn its allotted portion. Owing to the large 

 demands made upon the adult birds' time and energy, they are not 

 usually shy, but carry on their domestic duties in spite of intruders 

 on their privacy, seldom indeed even pausing to remonstrate with the 

 offender. 



When fledged, the tails of the young birds are not much longer 

 than those of fully-grown-up wrens. The gradual lengthening of this 

 tail marks their progress from youth to maturity. As a rule only one 

 brood is reared in the season. The young keep with their parents till 

 the following spring, and during autumn and winter probably mix with 

 other family parties. Being lively and sociable they apparently enjoy 

 life to the full : yet in no locality is this species ever numerous. At 

 night they are said to " gather together to roost in tall thorn hedges, 

 where the bat-fowlers find them huddled into a ball-like cluster." 1 I 

 once disturbed five or six which were roosting in a disused wren's 

 nest. 2 Mr. Kearton describes how he and his brother found " Three 

 longtailed-tits' nests in the same hedgerow, within a couple of hundred 

 yards of each other. We visited them on several occasions late in the 

 evening and always found the male birds sharing the cosy feather- 

 lined nests." 3 



GREAT-TIT, BLUE-TIT, COAL-TIT, MARSH-TIT 



[E. L. TURNER] 



In " The Garden that I Love " there stands a little group of trees, 

 mostly larches, firs, chestnuts and beeches, with here and there an 

 oak not crowded together, but so arranged as to admit sunlight 

 and air ; an ideal feeding-place for the Tits, Nature's tiny acrobats. 

 Here, any day in winter, may be found great-tits, coal-tits, blue, 



1 O. V. Aplin, Birda of Oxfordshire, p. 72. - Vol. i. p. 290 of this work. 



J Wild Life at Home, p. 80. 



