FEBRUARY. 27 



THE TITS IN LUCK, 



A lump of suet or a meat bone, a rind of cheese 

 or a cocoanut suspended from a string, will be visited 

 all day long by tits, and occasionally by robins, and 

 the acrobatic feats of the feathered mites will repay 

 you for the kindness. If you hang up a whole cocoa- 

 nut near a window, with a hole scarcely larger than 

 a penny cut in the side, you will see the tits at first 

 hanging upon the outside to feed while it spins. 

 Later, when they have eaten all that can be reached 

 from the outside, they fearlessly pop in and out ; 

 and the sensations of a tomtit when he first enters 

 the cocoanut must resemble those of Aladdin in the 

 cave a roomy, vaulted chamber, glowing with soft 

 light reflected from its walls of sweet, solid food. 



A MIXED CHARACTER. 



Tits, however, like most birds, are scraps of solid 

 selfishness wrapped up in feathers. We cannot 

 blame them for this. It is Nature's invariable rule 

 that the weakest must go to the wall, and tomtits 

 would not be the active, plucky little imps that they 

 are if their ancestors had not won their meals from 

 each other by pluck and activity. There are times, 

 however, when the tomtit shows more pleasing traits. 

 In the nesting season it is sweet to see the fussy 

 courtesy of the male while he hunts for spiders as 

 love-gifts for his fluffy little bride, who sits idly aloft 

 in the spring sunshine, preening her feathers and 



