130 BIRD-LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



obtainable in the grand old orchards, in which 

 the fruit-trees are old and lichen-draped, and in 

 the hedges, the latter also abounding with suit- 

 able nooks and crannies for breeding purposes. 

 Perhaps the most familiar is the Blue Titmouse. 

 This tiny species is almost as ubiquitous as the 

 House Sparrow. It is a regular winter guest of 

 ours, and sometimes a pair roost in one of our 

 drain-pipes throughout that season. This special 

 pipe drains a small conservatory ; in winter we 

 stop up the end in the building, and then the 

 birds are provided with a cosy nook in which to 

 sleep. It is most amusing to watch them come, 

 towards the close of the short afternoon, and after 

 making a hearty meal from a lump of suet hung 

 up by a string for their special use, fly up into 

 the pipe, the female generally retiring first, fol- 

 lowed a few moments after by her mate. We 

 might almost have set our watch by the move- 

 ments of these Tits, so regularly did they go to 

 roost each evening, not six feet from our kitchen 

 window. For two successive springs they reared 

 their brood in the cap of a ventilating pipe in a 

 building opposite ; but now the House Sparrows 

 have turned them out, and obliged them to seek 



