A STUDY IN TITMICE.
SANTA KLAUS has vanished, and the children have almost forgotten the glory of Yuletide ; but outside- a window in a garden in Surrey a Christmas-tree still stands erect, because no one has the heart to take it away, and dis- appoint the feathered tribe who come in ceaseless flow from the trees and shrubs to enjoy the long-continued feast. A leg-of-mutton bone hangs in gaunt nakedness from one, bough, dainty bits of suet take the place of gaudy-coloured balls, little tins of seed and nuts serve for sweetmeats, while pieces of meat or slices of plum-pudding form a variety for those who do not care for toys. From the top of the verandah on each side of the tree, a miniature Venetian bronze water- carrier hangs—suspended by a single string—full of hemp- seed, and on these the titmice perform startling acrobatic feats a thousand times a day. The water-carriers sway to and: fro as the breeze catches them, and the whole forms a study in titmice, illustrated from Nature's wonder-book, which would satisfy the most ardent Selbornian and fill pages in "Nature's Notes." All the surrounding shrubs seem alive with tits, for the news of the feast has spread to the neighbouring woods ;. and though at first the birds had to learn how to crack. the seed, the lesson was an easy one, and hunger a quick teacher. The ox-eye, or great-titmouse—called also the saw-sharpener — by virtue of its size — like John, Duke of Burgoyne—rules the roast. Sometimes three of the same species land on the edge of the bucket at once, and cling with outstretched wings and open beaks, hissing at one another as it spins round and round, all three want- ing to make a dive for seed at the same time; then., two turn giddy and fly away, and while number three is trying to steady himself, a little blue-cap pops down. and carries off a prize. There is no need of the poet's ques-
tion :— " Where is he, that giddy sprite, Blue-cap with his colours light ?"
For he is here, there, and everywhere, little pugnacious bird,. in and out between the big tits, and if kept waiting for a moment, he performs an acrobatic feat, and clings head down- wards on to the string, then lets himself fall with a run (as the naughty boys do on the banisters) when his turn comes.. Well does Wordsworth call him :—
" Lithest, gaudiest harlequin,
Prettiest tumbler ever seen," with his crown of bright cobalt-blue and dress of green, and grey and white. Gilbert White calls him the blue tit-mouse or nun, and says he is a greedy bird, and can easily be caught in a snap mouse- trap baited with suet but it is better he should be entertained on hemp-seed in winter and sunflower-seed in autumn, or allowed to pick holes in apples in the ground. Poor little blue-tit, why (as Mr.. Knapp says) should be have incurred the anathema of a parish for an item to be passed in a churchwarden's accounts "for seventeen dozen of tom-tits' heads"? At first the tits could- hardly balance themselves on the spinning bronze ; but soon they became adepts at the feat, and have already learnt that if they want to stay the wild career of the bucket, they must lodge on the edge with their beads in the opposite direction to which it is turning, and the check given by a sudden dive stills the bucket for an instant ; then the big tit flies down, and, finding a coal-tit ensconced within, -flies off in a rage, giving a parting kick to the whole -concern, and frightens the tiny bird into beating a hasty retreat, leaving the treasure free for the bigger birds. Hewitson is right, the titmice are perfect mountebanks ; it makes no difference to them in their gambols and antics whether their heads or their heels are uppermost. The marsh- -tit, which after a time is easily distinguished from the coal-tit by the absence of the white patch on the nape of the neck, may doubtless be very fond of hopping about osiers and -willows, and searching for food in swampy ground ; but eebohm seems to think he has hardly a right to his name, -for he is so often found in a garden ; and, at any rate, one -thing is certain, he loves hemp-seed, and is the sweetest, prettiest little bird ever seen, not much larger than the -golden-crested wren. He has to watch his chance, and some- -times rests on a rose-bush, giving a p'nintive "chip-chip," as if hurt in his feelings at having to wait so long, full of wonder at the blue-tit's boldness, and awe at the ox-eye's size. It is -very pretty to see the tits on a branch hard by, with the seed lietween their feet, tapping and breaking the hard shell ; and when they are all at work, the shrubbery sounds like a fairy forge, with fairy hammers beating on the anvils. Strange to say, the coal-tit can break three seeds while the big tit breaks but one, and the marsh-tit carries off three at a time in his tiny bill to have a private feast on his own behalf, perhaps shares it with a prospective mate.
In a lily-bed in the same garden, the mice were busy feasting on the bulbs, so a trap was improvised of an -earthenware jar sunk in the ground half-full of water, -and just below the rim a piece of butter was placed. There was joy the first morning when the corpse of a mouse was discovered, a little brown burglar of bulbs, and
-the success of the trap was extolled. With the second day -the voice of mourning was beard in the land, for a greedy -blue-tit, preferring butter to hemp-seed, had ventured in too far, and a beautiful nut-hatch shared the same fate. After
these two verdicts of "round drowned," even the lilies were sacrificed; and if beyond the Austrian pine and heath- bed one lily is missed from its place and fails to raise a white :pure head to the blue sky, it is better so than that we should have to ask with Wordsworth,—
" Light of heart and light of limb,
What is now become of him ? "
-or miss the rapping in the wood and cry of the nut-hatch in the garden. Now that the bullfinches are busy at work despoiling the snowy mespilus of buds is the time for fixing up the bird-boxes ; these have been made of -logs of larch hollowed out about fourteen inches long, 'with all the bark left on them, and a hole cut in the side -for the birds to enter at. The top is made to take off -and on, so that the landlord may pay a visit at will to see how his tenants are progressing. These boxes are nailed to -trees in warm cosy corners, wbere they may look as much like the trunk as possible, little ready-made homes for tits, -sparrows, and nut-hatches; and underneath the verandah is fastened one of the old-fashioned terra-cotta nests, shaped like a bottle, which in olden times were fashioned under the -eaves of houses to tempt "good-luck" birds to come and breed, and so bring happiness to the homestead. Round the .Christmas-tree the ouzel, with tawny bill, chases its mate; -timid starlings come hobbling up to feed ; sparrows, of course, with the hedge accentor ; chaffinches, green linnets, thrashes, and robins join the merry throng; but only the tits are acro- hats, and enjoy the venetian-bronze buckets to themselves.
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