202 THE TITS 



birds reared in the open. I removed my young blue-tits for a little 

 while daily for sixteen days when photographing their growth, but 

 they did not attempt to leave the box till a week later. 



In May 1909 a pair of great-tits built inside the wooden casing of 

 a pump. Unfortunately a late frost froze the pump, and the owner 

 not being aware of the existence of this nest, poured in a kettleful of 

 boiling water and thus killed the half-fledged brood. In spite of such 

 a tragedy, the tits built again in the same place. Being desirous of 

 photographing the second brood I removed a board from the pump 

 casing ; but immediately the whole family flew into my face and then 

 fluttered away. Eventually several were caught and put back into 

 the nest. When almost fledged, young Tits, though able to perch on a 

 large bough, cannot maintain their balance on a small twig, but either 

 fall off at once, or hang limply for some seconds, unable to hoist them- 

 selves up. My captured nestlings had arrived at this point in their 

 education, but two days later they were quite agile, and in training for 

 the future acrobats Nature intended them to be. At this stage of their 

 growth they are taken to the woods, and there tended by their parents 

 for a considerable time. This is the crucial point in the career of all 

 young birds, for their semi-helpless condition, ignorance of the world, 

 and clamorous outcries, render them particularly liable to attacks 

 from marauding foes. 



Marsh and coal-tits are less disposed to tolerate human intrusion 

 into their domestic affairs, and it is not well to subject these two species 

 to overmuch watching. But here again individuals differ, and some 

 will be found more confiding than others. 



For three weeks during June 1910 I tenanted a houseboat close 

 to the edge of a thick wood encircling a secluded Broad in Norfolk. 

 A green ride meandered through this wood to the water's edge. In 

 the twilight of dawn or dusk none disputed my wanderings up and 

 down this ride but the lordly pheasant and his kind. Even in the day 

 it was little frequented. The bushes and trees were alive with half- 

 fledged birds, and the scene of almost hourly tragedies. There one 



