BIRDS. 151 



assiduously protected. " If you happen to be sulky 

 or moody, look on ; you cannot fail to be cheered 

 and soothed by the sight, so lively, merry, and frisky 

 a creature must needs divert you. Tom-tit is no 

 actor, but an original, and a very clever one withal." 



V 



THE BLUE TITMOUSE. 



The Pipits are something like larks in appearance, 

 and yet not larks. There is one of them which falls 

 in our circuit, and that is the Tree Pipit, 1 which makes 

 its appearance here in May, and goes at once to the 

 woods. Perched on the tops of the highest trees, 

 they twitter, but during descent to the ground they 

 perform their song. " Few lovers of Nature can have 

 failed to observe this small brown bird, perched on 



1 Anthus arboreus. 



