THE LONG-TAILED TIT 



927 



days later the nest was domed over, leav- 

 ing an entrance hole at the side near the 

 top. The framewoiK was complete, com- 

 pact, and springy, with a strength and 

 resistance one would hardly credit. Then 

 came the task of house-furnishing, and 

 now the birds flew into the fir wood, 

 whence from time to time I heard the 

 whirring of wings of the pheasant, and it 



with a Hush of pink from the yolk, and 

 each containing the wonderful germ of 

 life. As incubation advances, the shells 

 lose their transparency, becoming a dull 

 white, yet doubly precious doubtless to 

 the little mother. The early life of the 

 tiny brood is less easy to picture, but it 

 must resemble that of most other nest- 

 lings. Unable to count, the parent birds 



HIS TURN AT LASl 



was easy to picture the Tits gleaning the 

 feathers discarded by that dandy in his 

 morning toilet. They were plentiful, too, 

 judging by the frequency of the comings 

 and goings ; and they had need to be, for 

 the softest of eiderdowns is not more soft 

 than the interior of a Long-tailed Tit's 

 nest. It is said that a naturalist has 

 counted two thousand feathers in the 

 lining of a single nest, and to one who has 

 watched the untiring industry of the 

 builders the sight of a nest torn out by 

 some wanton vandal hand is moving 

 almost to tears. 



Then the eggs are laid — eight, ten, C)r 

 even more — delicate, white prisons, faintly 

 spotted with red at the larger end, suffused 



have to feed their young in the dark, and 

 it must be that the strongest, as ever in 

 Nature, get the lion's share. Thus it is 

 that some are fledged and leave the nest 

 days before the others — or can it be that 

 incubation is begun before the full com- 

 plement of eggs is laid ? In any case, as 

 the young ones grow the nest would be 

 strained to bursting were the walls any 

 less firmly built. And yet the old birds 

 enter, must enter to attend to the sani- 

 tary requirements of the brood. The 

 excrement of all young birds in cup- 

 shaped or domed nests is encased in 

 a filmy sack, a wonderful ]irovision on 

 Nature's part to enable the parent birds 

 to keep all sweet and clean. 



