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



s;i\\ \ at in. as -In- really is beautiful uiul bountiful, dark and inscrut- 

 able ; indifferent to all |min ; bent only on rigidly maintaining the 

 balance of things. (Juidcd by a faint "cheep" I would constantly find 

 a tiny isolated tit, completely forgotten by the parents, which were too 

 busy feeding the brood collectively to spare a moment for the indi- 

 vidual waif. And, indeed, they could not be blamed for neglect 



In a group of tall oaks there was a numerous family of fully 

 tl- <ljjed coal-tits, sitting amongst the branches so high up I could only 

 identify them with my field-glasses. It would be difficult to imagine 

 how any living thing could work more strenuously than did the 

 parents of this clamorous brood. They were ragged and unkempt 

 almost beyond recognition. Every moment was spent in seizing a 

 caterpillar and darting to each youngster in turn ; yet work as they 

 would, the incessant piping call-notes of the young coal-tits resounded 

 through the wood as long as there was a glimmer of light Therefore 

 woe betide any hapless little one that missed its balance and fluttered 

 to the ground. What chance had it of being heard ? What time had 

 the parents to notice its absence ? Either the cries became gradually 

 feebler till the bird died from exhaustion, or it was pounced upon by 

 one or other of the many foes which destroy bird life, and mercifully 

 put out of iN pain. 



The roosting habits of our small birds are more or less enveloped 

 in mystery ; but I have found Tits tucked up for the night in hay- 

 stacks, especially during the winter months ; sometimes, too, they roost 

 in old nesting-boxes, and therefore, probably, holes in trees are made 

 use of in like manner. 



Whilst on Hickling Broad in November, instead of the summer 

 migrants I had been used to seeing amongst the reed-beds, their 

 places were taken by wrens and Tits, which seemed to find food in 

 plenty there, and shelter from the bitter marsh-land winds. No matter 

 whether we ploughed through frozen "decks," or tramped over the 

 marshes, our ears were constantly assailed by the angry "chwr" of 

 Jenny Wren, or the indignant "zee zee" of blue-tits, whilst coal and 



VOL. II. 2D 



