BIRDS IN A VILLAGE 61 



when I took my first walks along the hedgerows, 

 still in their early, vivid green, frequently observing 

 my bird through a white and rose-tinted cloud of 

 apple -blossoms ; and when I left some species that 

 breed more than once in the season were rearing 

 second broods or engaged in making new nests, 

 On my very first day I discovered a nestful of fully- 

 fledged blue tits in a hole in an apple tree ; this 

 struck me as a dangerous place for the young birds, 

 as the tree leaned over towards the lane, and the hole 

 could almost be reached by a person standing on 

 the ground. On the next day I went to look at 

 them, and, approaching noiselessly along the lane, 

 spied two small boys with bright, clean faces it 

 was on a Sunday standing within three or four 

 yards of the tree, watching the tits with intense 

 interest. The parent birds were darting up and 

 down, careless of their presence, finding food so 

 quickly in the gooseberry bushes growing near the 

 roots of the tree that they visited the hole every 

 few moments ; while the young birds, ever screaming 

 for more, were gathered in a dense little cluster at 

 the entrance, their yellow breasts showing very 

 brightly against the rain-wet wood and the dark 

 interior of the hole. The instant the two little 

 watchers caught sight of me the excited look vanished 

 from their faces, and they began to move off, gating 

 straight ahead in a somewhat vacant manner. This 



