and Titmice 125 



My hoopoes are a case in point, already described. 

 But I tried the same kind of thing with some ox-eye 

 titmice, which, after rearing them from the age of 

 ten days in the house, were allowed, as soon as they 

 were strong on the wing, to fly about outside. 



There were two, for I had by no means deprived 

 their parents of all their progeny. 



One would have thought that as soon as the 

 young titmice had heard once more the call-notes of 

 the old birds, they would have returned instinctively 

 to them. 



Yet, although the latter were close at hand, my 

 head and shoulders for some time continued to be 

 their point of vantage whenever I came into the 

 garden and whistled for them. 



And they made use of such perches even when I 

 was playing at games on the lawn. A titmouse settling 

 on one's lawn-tennis racquet as one is on the point of 

 serving is embarrassing. 



A pair of ox-eye tits were very fond of one of the 

 nesting boxes, fixed in a Portugal laurel, and one 

 summer, as many young ones seemed to come flutter- 

 ing out as letters from a post-box at Christmas time. 

 Strikingly handsome birds are these greater tits, with 

 the bold black line running down the centre of their 

 yellow breasts. 



I recall my intense joy, when on a visit to Brighton 

 in my boyhood, I was given a cage full of blue tom- 

 tits by my Mother. 



She had taken me to a bird-show, and that which 

 fascinated me most was this cage, open to the front 



