LITTLE INNOCENTS. 19 
ravenously; and another was picking up 
dropped pieces below. 
Contrary to popular belief, the great tits 
did not at once fall upon and drive away their 
blue cousins. Far from it. The blue cousins, 
in fact, fell upon and drove them away, 
though whether this was because the said 
blue cousins thought they had not much 
chance of living if they lost their suet, or not, 
I cannot say. Anyway, the blue tits were 
acrobatting round the swinging suet when the 
old gentleman came down to his breakfast an 
hour later, and the great tits were nowhere 
to be seen. 
The day passed slowly and darkly, and the 
other birds hunted pessimistically for hibernat- 
ing insects in the shelter of the shrubbery. 
The blue tits gaily gorged on suet the hour 
long, and the great tits watched them in 
dangerous silence from the shadows, starving 
as they watched. 
Then, about an hour before dusk, when all 
was very quiet, and when nobody was about, 
one of the great tits appeared, hovering near 
the suet; and one of the blue tits, spotting 
him, and over-confident with previous victory, 
chased him up into the dark covert of a 
coniferous evergreen. It was very dark 
indeed, and gloomy too! Nobody had seen 
