60 WOODLAND CREATURES 



the act of raiding a long-tailed tit's nest. It was 

 about three o'clock on a warm sunny afternoon 

 at the end of May, and I was bird's-nesting in 

 a bushy place near a wood, when I heard a com- 

 motion, a great twittering among the little birds 

 in one of the bushes. It was a thick blackthorn 

 in which the trouble appeared to be centred. 

 Peeping into it, I saw a pair of long-tailed tits 

 hopping this way and that, seeming in a great 

 state of agitation and excitement, so that they 

 took no notice of me. Peering and poking into 

 the tangle of thorns, I next made out their nest, 

 which was hidden in the heart of the bush. It 

 was a typical example of the wonderful art of 

 this species, an oval ball of moss beautifully 

 decorated with lichen and spiders' silk, a neat 

 round hole giving entrance to the feather-lined 

 interior. From that hole there now peeped out 

 a yellow head with a pair of beady black eyes, 

 undoubtedly and unmistakably the head of a 

 dormouse, which was evidently the cause of all 

 the trouble. My peering and peeping shook the 

 bush, whereupon a second mouse ran away up a 

 branch, leaving behind it a fragile remnant of 

 egg-shell caught on a thorn. Another shake and 

 both culprits made off, and a thorough investiga- 

 tion revealed that they had eaten most of the 

 eggs. Not only were there fragments outside, 

 but there were the broken shells in the nest. 



This is the only time I have seen two adult 

 dormice together, and old mice they must have 

 been, for it was too early in the year for young 



