ALONG THE LANES AND HEDGEROWS. 63 



LONG-TAILED TITMOUSE (Acredula rosea). It is widely 

 the more interesting when we remember that no bate**. 

 other British Titmouse builds half such an elabo- 

 rate home, or places it in the branches. All 

 through the winter the Long-tailed Tit may be 

 met with in a variety of haunts, roaming up and 

 down the country-side in little parties, usually 

 composed of the broods of the previous summer 

 and their parents ; but as spring advances the 

 social impulses are lost, the tiny creatures sepa- 

 rate into pairs, and the duties of the year com- 

 mence. It is a stirring sight to see a party of 

 these feathered mites trooping along the hedges, 

 say in midwinter, when the foliage is scant, and 

 one can see their every movement. One after 

 the other they go, calling merrily all the time 

 a low and rapidly repeated si-si-si, or see-see-see, 

 varied by an occasional harsher note and turning 

 and twisting into the oddest attitudes as they 

 search the twigs and buds for food. No matter 

 how much they are disturbed, the party keeps 

 together ; and rarely do they stay in one spot, the 

 whole country - side is their pasture hedges, 

 woods, trees, orchards, coppices, all are scruti- 

 nised in turn. Insects and their larvae, and seeds, 

 form the food of this species. The Long-tailed 

 Tit begins to nest in spring. The usual site 

 for its nest, when placed in the hedgerows, is 

 a holly-bush, and when in the lanes a tangled 

 thicket of briar and bramble, or a gorse-bush, 

 is usually chosen. This nest is globular, like a 

 Wren's, only composed externally of green moss, 

 silvered and spangled over with lichens, scraps 

 of paper, and spiders' webs, lined with an 



