LONG-TAILED TITMOUSE 63 
from perch to perch, with their weak, bobbing 
flight, and their long tails stuck out behind them 
like a party of little stiff-tailed tadpoles. They 
are very attractive to watch upon these excursions, 
as, like all the Titmouse family, they cling to the 
twigs in every possible attitude, and are remark- 
ably tame and fearless. Their plumage is also 
very distinctive and striking in its contrasts of 
black, pink, and white. The large, oval, lichen- 
covered nest of the Long-tailed Tit is perhaps the 
most beautiful and remarkable of any British bird's. 
It is built in many different situations ; most 
usually among thick thorns or brambles, but often 
in a furze-bush or holly-bush, or in ivy on a tree- 
trunk, or in a quite different situation from any of 
these, in a large fork of an ash, willow, or other 
tree. In this last situation its thickly lichened 
surface often seems to conceal it with remarkable 
completeness, as it rests against the lichens which 
cover the boughs. When, however, it is placed 
in a green bush it is just as thickly covered with 
lichens, which then have the opposite effect of 
making it far more conspicuous than it would be 
without them ; so that it is very doubtful if this 
can be regarded as a true case of " protective 
mimicry," a case, that is, in which the bird is led 
to make its nest look like its surroundings for the 
express purpose of concealing it from observation. 
