A NOVEL CHRISTMAS TREE. 
225 
swiftly up from the tree at my approach, and over the roof of 
the house. Next morning I noticed a lump of suet weighing 
nearly a quarter of a poun'd was gone from the tree. A day or 
two later as I was getting up I heard a great commotion among 
the small birds in the verandah below, and on going to my 
window to see, if I could, the cause of the excitement, a kestrel 
slowly floated up from under the verandah roof carrying another 
piece of suet in his claws, and sailed past the window of my 
bedroom. A few hours later a kestrel — presumably the same 
bird — was knocked over by a farm lad with a stone, in the 
garden of the bird-loving friend already mentioned, in the very 
act of killing a tame peewit. The kestrel was a young bird and 
in very poor condition, which perhaps accounted for its con- 
descending to eat suet. 
The whole tribe are now so tame that we can stand at the 
window to watch them without disturbing them at all. Occa- 
sionally, if we come to the window suddenly or make an un- 
expected noise, a feeding tit will screw his head backward over 
his shoulder to look at us as he hangs upside down to a brazil 
nut. Sometimes too, under similar circumstances, a nuthatch 
will pause in the act of letting himself slip down into his coco- 
nut, to look reproachfully at us as if to say, “ Don’t do that 
again ; I’m easily frightened.” But no one moves away for us, 
and the re-decorating of the Christmas-tree is always watched 
from the cedar and an old apple-tree in the field below by an 
excited crowd, who swarm back almost before the window is 
shut, chirping and chattering, raising their crests, and looking 
at the window with bobs and jerks, as if in gratitude for the 
replenished feast. 
To those who are tired of racking their brains and emptying 
their purses in the vain attempt to give pleasure to satiated 
human senses and stomachs, I would say — if you live in the 
country, try the experiment of entertaining guests from the 
waysides and hedges. You will not meet with sneering depre- 
ciation of your hospitality from the feathered bipeds, and the 
Toms will not be offended at being asked to meet the Coles! 
Indeed, their gratitude to you will be out of all proportion to 
your expenditure of thought and money. Half-a-crown will 
buy a spruce fir ; spend another half-a-crown on suet, brazil and 
coco-nuts, and then enjoy the unfeigned delight and gratitude 
of Nature’s great operatic company over their Christmas-tree. 
Ella F. Conybeare. 
