December 



main branches. As he comes round the bole from 

 the back, you catch the light on his silky white throat 

 and breast ; and as he creeps over the front of the 

 bole, you may observe, if near enough, the thin 

 white stripe over the eye. The tree-creeper's dis- 

 tinction, however, lies in his bill ; it is long, and 

 curved sharply downwards. He applies it unerr- 

 ingly in extracting from the crevices of the bark the 

 minute insects, larvae, etc., upon which he entirely 

 subsists. 



Whilst I have proved by marking them that 

 some of the great- and blue-tits which visit my garden 

 at this season do so regularly day by day, a curious 

 circumstance in connection with the visits of the 

 long-tailed tits, gold-crests and tree-creepers is, that 

 they seem to come in " rushes " at wide intervals, so 

 that for weeks none of them is seen, and then, 

 suddenly generally upon some genial day they all 

 appear together, and are much in evidence during 

 the day, but upon the morrow are no more to be 

 seen. 



December is a cheerful month, not in actuality, 

 but in prospect ; and, after all, that part of a man's 

 life which matters is less what he is and has done, 

 than what he hopes to be and to do. December is a 

 grey old mountain-top the Mount Prospect of the 

 year. A month or two hence the missel-thrush will 

 be prospecting for a building site, and the rooks 

 return permanently to their summer seat. From then 

 until the advent of the chiff-chaff that tiny herald 



61 



