42 
NATURE NOTES 
glance on the owner, who watched me from behind his counter. 
Needless to say, I very soon discovered my mistake, and the old 
dealer, when I turned towards him, met my wondering gaze 
with a look of smiling satisfaction which I interpreted wrongly 
at the moment. He removed a pair of large horn spectacles and 
remarked solemnly: “You have got the proper inner eye, you 
know a bird when you see it.” 
“ I should say rather I am incapable of recognising an imita- 
tion when I see it,” I answered airily ; but the look I once more 
fastened on the little blue birds routed the depreciating words, 
and I sat down in full view of the narrow dusty shelf, where the 
feast of fat or cocoanut seemed to diminish visibly under the 
silent workings of those needle-sharp beaks. 
“ Well, what do you think of them? ” asked the owner of the 
shop. 
“ They are wonderful,” I replied, “ I have never seen any 
thing so life-like. Are they for sale ? ” 
“Sale? No!” the old man answered emphatically as he 
re-adjusted his immense round spectacles, which certainly 
bestowed very proper “ outer eyes ” on him. “ Though I don’t 
say I ijever mean to part with them,” he added. “ That all 
depends.” 
“ And on what does it depend ? ” I enquired with my eyes 
upon the shelf ; but before he could answer I had sprung to my 
feet and darted across to the Blue Tits, over-turning in my haste 
an old spinning-wheel, which fell with clatter enough to have 
scared a whole flight of birds. These two, however, remained 
motionless, and after once more gazing long and closely at the 
pair I returned to my seat, feeling thoroughly ashamed of myself, 
more especially when I stumbled over something lying in the 
way and found that it was a broken distaff and a bunch of 
tangled flax. 
To my words of apology on discovering the extent of the 
damage done the round-eyed old owner of the shop paid not the 
smallest attention. He leaned towards me over the counter and 
asked in a wheezy anxious whisper : “ What made you jump up 
and cry out like that ? ” 
“ Uid I cry out?” I asked. “Well, to tell you the truth, 
the smallest of the two birds seemed to me to move suddenly, 
and I am convinced it moved,” 1 added with heat. “ Have you 
never noticed the same thing ? ” 
Instead of replying to my question, the old dealer pulled 
himself up by the counter and shuffled across the little shop to 
the shelf. He was very stiff in the joints and unwieldy, but 
with the greatest care and gentleness he lifted first one little 
Blue Tit and then the other from its perch on the shelf, and set 
them down side by side in front of me on the counter. Then 
with many grunts and groans he sank heavily into his capacious 
round leather chair, and began to talk. 
“I am close on eighty years,” he explained, “and I got 
