212 THE BLUE TITMOUSE 



I am glad to think that some of my schoolboy neigh- 

 bours will read this, and will know that their forbearance 

 towards these little birds is appreciated: a forbearance 

 towards the defenceless which is always a distinguishing 

 characteristic of the true gentleman. 



The Blue-Tit is of great service to all flower and fruit 

 growers, and it comes much to our suburban, and even 

 London gardens. And yet gardeners at one time 

 persecuted the little labourer, one of the prettiest and 

 most winsome of our common birds. 



Sitting in the garden of a house I formerly lived in, I 

 noted there, in my apple trees laden with fruit, that the 

 Tits the Great, the Marsh, the Coal, and the Blue-Tit 

 that had not been much in evidence since April, 

 when they were busy amongst the blossom buds, have 

 come back, and they were busy now again amid the 

 branches. Having read lately that they destroy the 

 fruit, notably apples, in the autumn, I have watched 

 them closely. It is as I expected : a number of the 

 apples have been attacked by insects, and it is on these 

 that the birds are busy, on fruit which if they did remain 

 on the trees they are now falling in numbers would 

 be quite worthless. The Tits enlarge the holes so as to 

 get at the true destroyers, and they are doing more good 

 than harm. As the Rev. F. O. Morris said, long ago, 

 ;( the destruction of the Blue-tit by the farmer or 

 gardener is an act of economical suicide." 



Tits will also sometimes have recourse to the orchard 

 in times of drought, in order to quench their thirst by 

 bites at the fruit. But we should be churlish indeed if 

 we grudged our little unpaid labourers a small tithe of 

 our harvest, which is the larger for their spring services. 



