290 WILD NATURE'S WAYS, 



Occasionally a nut under treatment will slip 

 from the grasp of an industrious oxeye, strike a 

 twig in its descent, and shooting off at a tangent, 

 escape the sharp eye of the bird by rolling beneath 

 a curled dead leaf. Under such circumstances I 

 have watched a great tit search long and dili- 

 gently in vain for the lost nut. 



In times of great scarcity I have seen a member 

 of this species tugging away like a miniature 

 carrion crow at the remains of a dead rabbit, 

 whilst not ten yards off a marsh tit was hurriedly 

 chipping and chiselling old oak apples to pieces, 

 in the hope of finding some edible trifle, such as 

 a spider, lurking within. 



Blue tits seem to be endowed with good 

 memories, for as soon as their natural food grows 

 scarce in the woodlands they resort to gardens 

 where they have aforetime fed liberally upon suet 

 provided by some sympathetic human friend. 



Greenfinches, like their relatives the chaffinches, 

 are, during hard weather, birds of the farmyard, 

 and no grain of corn showing sufficient of itself 

 to establish its identity escapes their sharp eyes. 



They are inordinately fond of sunflower seeds, 

 and, remembering this, I always carefully harvest 

 all my sunflower heads in the autumn, and preserve 

 them for winter fare. It is quite laughable to see a 

 slow heavy old cock greenfinch sitting (or, rather, 

 lying) down upon one of these, steadily and 



