The Story -Book of the Fields 



morsel, and nineteen are left in expectation. 

 The tit at once sets out on another expedition, 

 returns, starts again unwearied, and when the 

 twentieth beak has been rilled the first has 

 for a long time been gaping with hunger. 

 You may imagine the amount consumed by 

 such a household. Whole tribes of birds- 

 woodpeckers, wrynecks, nuthatches, tits, 

 wrens and many others, carry on this patient 

 pursuit, seeking for the eggs in the wrinkles 

 of the bark and the clusters of leaves, for the 

 larvae in the scales of the shoots and in worm- 

 eaten wood ; and for the insects in the 

 crevices where they lie hidden. In this kind 

 of hunting the bird has not to follow its prey, 

 or to vie with it in speed : it is only necessary 

 to find it in its lair. For this a keen eye and 

 sharp beak are required ; the wings being 

 only of secondary importance. But other 

 races carry on the great hunt in the air ; they 

 follow in their flight the ephemerids, moths, 

 gnats or beetles. These need a short but 

 widely opened beak, which will catch the 

 ephemerids as they pass, notwithstanding 

 their uncertain and uncontrolled flight ; a 

 beak in which the prey is swallowed up with- 

 out the bird slackening its speed for a second, 

 and sticky so that a little butterfly cannot 



268 



