56 
THE TOM TIT 
out of a hole on one side. Boys call this nest a 
" poke/' It is full of soft wool, and in this wool the 
Tit lays her eggs ; she does not lay less than ten, 
and now and then many more. The eye of the Tit 
is so made that an ant or fly, or the egg of a grub, 
when near it, will seem to the bird as if it were as 
big as a hen's egg does to us. The Tit's eyes are 
made in this way, that no kind of grub may be 
able to get away from it, and I can not tell you 
how many it will eat in a day. It will pick them 
out of the buds on the rose tree or the pear, or any 
kind of tree, as fast as it can move its head and 
beak ; and it will hang to a twig, with its head 
down and its tail up in the air. The Tits all sing, 
but not much. They stay with us all the year, and 
get very tame when it is cold. 
