74 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



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, gazing straight 

 ahead in a somewhat vacant manner. This in- 

 stantaneous and instinctive display of hypocrisy 

 was highly entertaining, and would have made 

 me laugh if it had not been for the serious pur- 

 pose I had in my mind. "Now, look here," I 

 said, "I know what you are after, so it's no use 

 pretending that you are walking about and seeing 

 nothing in particular. You've been watching the 

 young tits. Well, I've been watching them, too, 

 and waiting to see them fly. I dare say they will 



