248 Wild Life in a Southern County 



their individuality all the year round. Even herons, 

 though they fish separately, are gregarious in building, 

 and also often in a sense pack during the day, standing 

 together on a spit or sandbank. Rooks, starlings, wood- 

 pigeons, fieldfares, and redwings, may be seen in winter 

 all feeding in the same field, and all in large flocks. 



Some evidence of a supposed tendency to intermarry 

 among birds may perhaps be deduced from the practice of 

 the long-tailed titmouse. This species builds a nest 

 exactly like a hut, roof included, and in it several birds 

 lay their eggs : as many as twenty eggs are sometimes 

 found ; fourteen is a common number. Here there is not 

 only the closest relationship, but a system of community. 

 This tit has a way sometimes of puffing up its feathers 

 they are fluffy, and in that state look like fur and utter- 

 ing a curious sound much resembling the squeak of a 

 mouse ; hence, perhaps, the affix mouse ' to its name. 



The tomtit also packs, and flies in small parties almost 

 all the year round. They remain in such parties until the 

 very time of nesting. On March 24 last, while watching 

 the approach of a snowstorm, I noticed that a tall birch 

 tree whose long, slender, weeping branches showed dis- 

 tinctly against the dark cloud seemed to have fruit 

 hanging at the end of several of the boughs. On going 

 near I counted six tomtits, as busy as they could be, 

 pendent from as many tiny drooping boughs, as if at the 

 end of a string, and swinging to and fro as the rude blast 

 struck the tree. The six in a few minutes increased to 

 eight, then to nine, then to twelve, and at last there were 

 fourteen together, all dependent from the very tiniest 

 drooping boughs, all swinging to and fro as the snow- 

 flakes came silently floating by, and all chuckling and 

 calling to each other. The ruder the blast and the more 



