120 THE LONG-TAILED TOM-TIT. 



kins of the alder, for an hour or so, then seem to for- 

 get or be weary of it, and we hear it no more. 



Our tall hedge-rows and copses are frequented by a 

 very amusing little bird, the long-tailed tit-mouse (parus 

 caudatus). Our boys call it the long-tailed torn-tit, long 

 torn, poke-pudding, and various other names. It seems 

 the most restless of little creatures, and is all day long 

 in a state of progression from tree to tree, from hedge 

 to hedge, jerking through the air with its long tail like 

 a ball of feathers, or threading the branches of a tree, 

 several following each other in a little stream ; the 

 leading bird uttering a shrill cry of twit, twit, twit, and 

 away they all scuttle to be first, stop for a second, and 

 then are away again, observing the same order and pre- 

 cipitation the whole day long. The space travelled by 

 these diminutive creatures in the course of their pro- 

 gresses from the first move till the evening roost must 

 be considerable ; yet, by their constant alacrity and 

 animation, they appear fully equal to their daily task. 

 We have no bird more remarkable for its family asso- 

 ciation than this parus. It is never seen alone, the 

 young ones continuing to accompany each other from 

 the period of their hatching until their pairing in spring. 

 Its food is entirely insects, which it seeks among mosses 

 and lichens, the very smallest being captured by the 

 diminutive bill of this creature. Its nest is as singular 

 in construction as the bird itself. Even in years long 

 passed away, when, a nesting boy, I strung my plunder 

 on the benty grass, it was my admiration ; and I never 

 see it now without secretly lauding the industry of these 

 tiny architects. It is shaped like a bag, and externally 

 fabricated of moss and different herbaceous lichens, 

 collected chiefly from the sloe (lichen prunastri), and 

 the maple (lichen farinaceus) ; but the inside contains 

 such a profusion of feathers, that it seems rather filled 

 than lined with them, a perfect feather-bed ! I remember 

 finding fourteen or sixteen pealike eggs within this 

 downy covert, and many more were reported to have 

 been found. The excessive labor of the parent birds 

 in the construction and collection of this mass of ma- 

 terials is exceeded by none that I know of; and the 



