34 JANUARY 



its young ? In habits, as well as in appearance, there 

 is a great difference from other tits in the longtailed 

 tit, or, if you prefer it, the mufflin, bottle-tit, poke- 

 pudding, long-pod, caper-longtail, mumruffin, or 

 huckmuck, for rural fancy has been fertile in devising 

 names for this tiny creature. It goes about its quest 

 for food in an amateurish unbusinesslike way, very 

 unlike the eager, professional scrutiny of the pretty 

 blue tits, of which there is a pair examining the 

 sprays of yonder larch. Very different, too, from 

 the little tree-creeper, a dingy and humble relative of 

 the gaily pranked woodpeckers, which is quartering 

 every inch of that oak-stem with short, quick, jerky 

 pace. Its total length from head to tail is about the 

 same as the bottle-tit (we have got among the 

 midgets to-day) ; but in this instance the object of 

 prolonged tail-feathers is not difficult to divine, for 

 they are stiffened and divergent, so as to form a 

 useful prop to the proprietor in his work on vertical 

 surfaces. 



XII 



Now this little drama, enacted on this January 

 Feathered afternoon by these diminutive perfor- 

 mers, is part of the great scheme known 

 as the balance of Nature. Here, within a space of 



