36 



My Garden Summer-Seat. 



normal human eye it is about seven or eight inches. To 

 the birds in some cases objects are magnified in com- 

 parison to the human eye as much as 2000 times. 

 The tits are in this respect the most noticeable of our 



birds, and the beautiful 

 artistic nest - building 

 long-tailed or bottle tit the 

 most remarkable of all. 

 To realise his microscopic 

 power of eye, we must 

 regard every object that 

 comes fully within his 

 field of vision as appear- 

 ing to him about 2000 

 — \a 1 times the size that it is 



\ to the normal human 

 eye. The blue tits and 

 longtailed lit. cole-tits come next, and 



then the wrens and wry- 

 necks, and then, at a considerable interval, the wood- 

 peckers. In consequence of this wonderful magnifying 

 power, an insect a quarter of an inch long will appear 

 as large to the eye of the longtailed tit as the common 

 mouse does to the eye of man, when held as near as it 

 can be seen. 



We need not therefore wonder at the ability of the 

 little birds to clear off almost microscopic insect larvae, 

 and to peck up crumbs that are to our vision scarcely 

 more than dust. What a peculiar subject it would be 

 to represent the various objects as they appear to a 

 long-tailed tit's eye ! Think of man how, when close 

 to the bird, he must stride a colossus in very truth ; 

 and how ominous an aspect a dog or cat must bear — 

 the latter a seeming tiger to the little bird. And the 



