1 40 Wild Life in a Southern County 



failed tit, or 'tit-mouse,' built exactly in the shape of 

 a hut with roof and tiny doorway, and always securely 

 attached in the midst of a thorn bush to branches that are 

 ^tiff and unlikely to bend with the breeze, so that this 

 beautiful piece of bird-architecture may not be disturbed. 

 To take it, it is generally necessary to cut away several 

 boughs. Such nests are often seen in farmhouses placed as 

 an ornament on the mantelpiece. Spiders have filled the 

 window with their webs, and to these every now and then 

 during the day — there is no door to the summer-house — • 

 come a robin, a wren, and a flycatcher. Either of these, 

 but more particularly the two last, will take insects from 

 the spider's web. 



The flycatcher has a favourite perch close by, and may 

 perhaps hear the shrill buzz when an insect is caught. The 

 flycatcher is a regular summer visitor : in the orchard, 

 garden, and adjacent rickyard at least three pairs build 

 every year. Under the shady apple trees near the summer- 

 house one may be seen the whole day long ever on the 

 watch. He perches on a dead branch, low down — not up 

 among the boughs, but as much as possible under them. 

 Every two or three minutes he flies swiftly from his perch 

 a few yards, darts on an insect — you cannot see it, but can 

 distinctly hear the snap of the bill — and returns to his 

 post. He uses the same perch for half an hour or more ; 

 then shifts to another at a little distance, and so works all 

 round the orchard, but regularly comes back to the same 

 :-pot. By waiting near it you may be certain of seeing him 

 presently ; and he is very tame, and will carry on opera- 

 tions within a few yards — sometimes picking up a fly almost 

 within reach of your hand. It is noticeable that many 

 insect-eating birds are especially tame. They will occa- 

 sionally dart after a moth, but drop it again — as if they did 



