116 
LONG-TAILED TIT. 
adder, infuriated at feeling hoggy's teeth griping her back, 
lashes her head against a skin less vulnerable than that 
once said to have been worn by a Mr. Achilles. The 
pluck and power of both is tried to the utmost, but hoggy 
is almost sure to triumph in the end, and the adder, half 
devoured, is often found next morning by the countryman, 
who wonders " how he come so mauled." I take it that 
the spiny coat of the hedgehog is Nature's defence against 
the poison fangs of his favourite prey. 
Yesterday was St. Valentine's day.* I had the good 
luck to meet with a companion as idle as myself, and as 
fond of the smell of the fresh air; and, without horse, 
dog, or gun, we wandered up the sandy lane leading to 
Eshing. Near the top of the lane we observed a whole 
family of the Long-tailed Tit threading the branches of 
an elm tree, in search of insects. The little fellows are all 
fluff and feather ; they seem to have no body at all, but to 
consist of a lump of down, nearly round, with one long 
feather stuck in the middle of it for a tail : their cry is 
weak, peevish, and often repeated, and when frightened 
away from one tree they go off to another in regular order, 
all in a line, jerking up and down, and holding out their 
long tails in a straight line behind them : in this party 
were fifteen, no doubt the hatch of a single pair last year. 
On the old bridge at Eshing we were delighted to see a 
whole colony of that lovely little flower. Drab A verna. 
Although it was the first time I had seen this beautiful 
forerunner of spring, it seemed, from the quantity in flower, 
to have been blooming for two or three weeks. I brought 
home several plants of it ; one is now before me, growing 
* Dated 15tli February, 1835.— N. 
