120 THE LONG-TAILED TOM-TIT. 
kin-s of the alder, for an hour or so, then seem to for- 
get or be weary of it, and we hear it no more. 
Our tall hedge-rows and copses are frequented by a 
very amusing little bird, the long-tailed tit-mouse (parus 
caudatus). Our boys call it the long-tailed tom-tit, long 
tom, poke-pudding, and various other names. It seems 
the most restless of little creatures, and is all day long 
in a state of progression from tree to tree, from hedge 
to hedge, jerking through the air with its long tail like 
a ball of feathers, or threading the branches of a tree, 
several following each other in a little stream ; the 
leading bird uttering a shrill cry of twit, twit, twit, and 
away they all scuttle to be first, stop for a second, and 
then are away again, observing the same order and pre- 
cipitation the whole day long. The space travelled by 
these diminutive creatures in the course of their pro- 
gresses from the first move till the evening roost must 
be considerable ; yet, by their constant alacrity and 
animation, they appear fully equal to their daily task. 
We have no bird more remarkable for its family asso- 
ciation than this parus. It is never seen alone, the 
young ones continuing to accompany each other from 
the period of their hatching until their pairing in spring. 
Its food is entirely insects, which it seeks among mosses 
and lichens, the very smallest being captured by the 
diminutive bill of this creature. Its nest is as singular 
in construction as the bird itself. Even in years long 
passed away, when, a nesting boy, I strung my plunder 
on the benty grass, it was my admiration ; and I never 
see it now without secretly lauding the industry of these 
tiny architects. It is shaped like a bag, and externally 
fabricated of moss and different herbaceous lichens, 
collected chiefly from the sloe (lichen prunastri), and 
the maple (lichen farinaceus) ; but the inside contains 
such a profusion of feathers, that it seems rather filled 
than lined with them, a perfect feather-bed ! I remember 
finding fourteen or sixteen pealike eggs within this 
downy covert, and many more were reported to have 
been found. The excessive labor of the parent birds 
in the construction and collection of this mass of ma- 
terials is exceeded by none that I know of; and the 
