JANUARY 25 



gatherings appears in no amiable light, but as a 

 pugnacious stickler for first place. The sparrows, 

 though greedy, are caution itself, anxious to make the 

 best of the good things, though wholly mistrusting the 

 motives of the purveyor. Now and then there is a 

 scattering and rush of wings as a jackdaw drops down 

 from the roof, grabs the largest available morsel and 

 hastily carries it off. If Nuthatches can be induced to 

 come they are always an addition, their odd, jerky 

 movements giving them a character which is all their 

 own. Nuts will often prove an attraction ; they will 

 toss away those which are without a kernel, not troubling 

 to open them. For tits there is the suspended coco-nut 

 sawn in half, or the denuded framework of goose or 

 turkey, forming a sort of magic cave in which they will 

 sit and peck their fill. Watch the fussy indignation of 

 a little blue-tit, as, a regular spitfire, he relieves his 

 mind when a great-tit has driven him from his favourite 

 lump of suet. These two species are regular comers ; 

 the coal-tit is so to a much less extent, while the marsh- 

 tit appears more rarely still. If walnut shells, filled 

 with fat or chopped nut-kernels, are threaded on a 

 stretched string, the tits will perform on the tight-rope 

 for our benefit. 



When there is a pond in the neighbourhood, a Moorhen 

 will sometimes join the pensioners at feeding-time, 

 jerking his tail and showing his white undertail- 

 coverts as he leaves the shelter of the sedges. At the 



