246 BIRD WATCHING 



but they were hardly systematic enough to let one 

 judge properly as to this. The wren, however, 

 both in this respect and in its general fa^ns {T agir, 

 had a striking resemblance to the tree - creeper, 

 with which bird — if I read the systematic tangle (I 

 mean in print) aright — he is more closely related 

 than are the tits. 



" Howsoever these things be " — I fear I have dwelt 

 too long upon them, but whole books are written upon 

 a war or even a battle — the little tree-creeper is a 

 very delightful bird to watch. Sometimes, on in- 

 clement winter days, one can come very near him, 

 very near indeed, and almost forget the cold, the 

 rain, the sleet, in his active busy little comfort. To 

 see him then creeping like a feathered mouse over 

 some stunted tree-trunk, and insinuating his slender, 

 delicately -curved little bill into every chink and 

 crevice of the bark — so busy, so happy, so daintily 

 and innocently destructive ! His head, which is as 

 the sentient handle to a very delicate instrument, is 

 moved with such science, such dentistry, that one 

 feels and appreciates each turn of it, and, by sym- 

 pathy, seems working oneself with a little probing 

 sickle that is seen even when invisible, as is the fine 

 wire or revolving horror in one's tooth, whilst sitting 

 in the dreadful chair. After watching him thus — 

 almost, sometimes, bending over him — I have broken 

 off some pieces of bark, to form an idea of what he 

 might be getting. A minute spider and a small 

 chrysalis or two would be revealed, but there were, 

 generally, many cocoon-webs of larger hybernating 

 spiders, whilst empty pupa shells and other such 

 debris suggested "pasture" sufficient to "lard" many 



