1883-92 
‘BIRDS IN MY GARDEN’ 
25 ‘ 
gave the name. This attraction and its result 
was repeated ; and we enjoyed the same in- 
structive amusement in subsequent summer 
vacations, to which I am indebted for additions 
that would otherwise probably have escaped 
my observation.’ 
There then follows a list of birds, with 
characteristic remarks and observations. Con- 
cerning the tits he writes : — 
‘ These lively little birds — the greater tit 
{Parus major), blue tit {Pamts c(xrtiletis), with 
the rarer long-tailed tit {Parus caudatus) I 
tempt into view at the time of hardest frosts. 
Then to the leafless branch of a creeper ^ which 
crosses my bed-room window I su.spend by a 
wire, with a fishing swivel, a small wire cage, 
about the size of a nutmeg. This is filled at 
night with a lump of suet. At early dawn 1 
note from my pillow the swift flight of a little 
bird to a branch of the Gleditschia, also in view, 
on which it turns or jerks about as if moved by a 
spring. Then mustering courage it darts upon 
the suet cage, clinging like a parrot to the wire, 
and whirling about to show all its plumage. It 
is the blue tit ; but hardly has he enjoyed a few 
pecks when he suddenly lets go and is off again 
to his post on the great tree. What has startled 
him in this calm dawn of prevailing frost ? The 
handsome greater tit takes his place, and not 
’ Pyrus japonica. 
