36 THE LONG-TAILED TIT 



or more ; but some of them are given to be quarrelsome, not 

 only towards other birds — like the Great Tit, who actually murders 

 them for the sake of picking out their brains — ^but among them- 

 selves, as the Blue Tit, who has been noticed so intently engaged 

 in combat with another bird of his own kind, that the observer 

 caught them both in his hat. The Long-tailed Tits, however, are 

 sociable after another sort. From the time that a young brood 

 leaves the nest until the next pairing season, father, mother, and 

 children keep together in irreproachable harmony. Exploring 

 the same clump of trees in society, perfectly agreed as to whither 

 their next flitting shall be, no one showing any disposition to 

 remain when the rest are departing, molesting no one, and suf- 

 fering as far as it can be ascertained no persecution, they furnish 

 a charming example of a happy family. Nomad in their habits, 

 save that they indulge in no questionable cravings for their neigh- 

 bours' property, they satisfy their wants with the natural produce 

 of any convenient halting-place, when they have exhausted 

 which they take their flight, in skirmishing order, but generally 

 in a straight line, and strictly following the lead of their chief, to some 

 other station ; and when overtaken by night, they halt and en- 

 camp where chance has left them. Their only requisite is, in 

 summer, the branch of a tree ; in winter, some sheltered place 

 where they can huddle together, and sleep untU the next day's 

 sun calls them to resume their erratic course. ^ Their food, during 

 those journeys, consists of caterpillars, small beetles, and the 

 pupae of insects generally, and this diet they seem never or very 

 rarely to vary. ^ The ripest fruits do not tempt them to pro- 

 long their stay in a garden, and insects that crawl on earth are 

 in two senses beneath their notice. Their rapid progress from 

 tree to tree has been compared to a flight of arrows. Singular 

 as is their flight, they are no less amusing whUe employed in hunting 

 for food, as they perform all the fantastic vagaries of the Tits, 

 and their long straight tails add much to the grotesqueness of 

 their attitudes. Seen near at hand, their appearance may be 

 caUed comical. Their abundant loose feathers, the prevailing hue 

 of which is grey, suggest the idea of old age, and, together with 

 the short hooked beak, might give a caricaturist a hint of an anti- 

 quated human face, enveloped in grey hair. Many of the provin- 

 cial names of the bird are associated with the ridiculous ; thus. 

 Long-tailed Mufflin, Long-tail Mag, Long-tail Pie, Poke-pudding, 



1 The name proposed for the Long-tailed Tit, by Dr. Leuch, Mecistura 

 vagans, is most appropriate. " Long-tailed Wanderer,' for such is its import, 

 describes the most striking outward characteristic of the bird, and its unvarying 

 habit. 



2 A young friend informed me that he had once shot one, with a beech- 

 nut in its mouth. This it must have picked up from the ground, as the season 

 was winter. 



