1883-92 'BIRDS IN MY GARDEN' 251 



gave the name. This attraction and its result 

 was repeated ; and we enjoyed the same in- 

 structive amusement in subsequent summer 

 vacations, to which I am indebted for additions 

 that would otherwise probably have escaped 

 my observation.' 



There then follows a list of birds, with 

 characteristic remarks and observations. Con- 

 cerning the tits he writes :— 7 



1 These lively little birds — the greater tit 

 [Partis major), blue tit (Partis cceruleus), with 

 the rarer long-tailed tit (Partis caudatus)—\ 

 tempt into view at the time of hardest frosts. 

 Then to the leafless branch of a creeper 1 which 

 crosses my bed-room window I suspend by a 

 wire, with a fishing swivel, a small wire cage, 

 about the size of a nutmeg. This is filled at 

 night with a lump of suet. At early dawn 1 

 note from my pillow the swift flight of a little 

 bird to a branch of the Gleditschia, also in view, 

 on which it turns or jerks about as if moved by a 

 spring. • Then mustering courage it darts upon 

 the suet cage, clinging like a parrot to the wire, 

 and whirling about to show all its plumage. It 

 is the blue tit ; but hardly has he enjoyed a few 

 pecks when he suddenly lets go and is off again 

 to his post on the great tree. What has startled 

 him in this calm dawn of prevailing frost ? The 

 handsome greater tit takes his place, and not 



1 Pyrus japonica. 



