THE LONG-TAILED TITMOUSE.
UNEXPECTEDNESS is a quality as fascinating to bird-lovers as to readers of detective stories. In addition it makes the fortunes of showmen, the New Art, the sensational newspaper, Mr. Winston Churchill, and the whole troop of other members of the brotherhood which takes Jack-in-the-box for its patron saint.
And it is unexpectedness which is also the outstanding quality of long-tailed titmice—we do not need to look for them since they are always thrusting themselves upon us unannounced. To walk down a lane by a wood and suddenly find oneself in the midst of a flock is like getting caught in a burst of hounds out of covert—and it is. literally a hunt which is going on, with the black- and-white, rosy-breasted mites rushing breathlessly along in full cry, as if they were chasing swift-winged butterflies instead of insects which have never stirred from their native tree.
All our titmice combine in flocks for the winter without distinction of species, but it is always the long-tailed element which takes the lead, and generally succeeds in setting such a pace that the rest are left behind within a few minutes. Long-tailed tits travel consistently in one direction, though occasionally they turn back without apparent reason, and the bend of a hedge on their track will always deflect them, for hedgerows are their highways. They rarely make long flights : in one flock I watched crossing a field about a hundred yards wide each bird mounted to a tree-top to take off, and yet finished only a foot or two above the stubble at the other side, By habit and preference the long-tailed tit is a lover of good company. So late as the second week in May this year I saw a party apparently consisting altogether of adults, while only three weeks afterwards roving families of about a dozen birds, old and young, were already fairly frequent. From the time the young fly until the next spring the flocks hang together, their numbers slowly dwindling, for it is strikingly noticeable that in late summer and autumn, before death or emigration has taken toll, the species is well over twice as strong as at other times. Both• causes probably play their part in diminishing the numbers, for they are erratic birds in many ways, wander- ing over long distances and leaving fresh colonists where the native stock has vanished, as it often does.
And if the average death-rate is high, the Black Death Itself. could not compare with the losses they suffer in severe winters. There is, in fact, a tempting parallel, if rather a fanciful one, between the long-tailed tits and the mediaevals—the same high rate of increase and loss, the same enthusiasm and vigorous communal life, and the same perfection of architecture. Moreover, it would be hard to think of a better parallel to the great mediaeval idea of a united Christendom without distinction of race or language than the mixed flocks of blue, great, marsh, coal and long-tailed tits, nut- hatches, goldcrests and tree-creepers, all speaking different dialects but linked by one common purpose, which range the woods in winter.
In every way the most surprising thing about the long- tailed tit is its nest. This is domed and most intricately felted : it may be placed at almost any height (a. friend found one in Ken Wood, near. Hampstead, 42 feet up in an oak tree) ; and according to some now legendary. authority quoted in every self-respecting bird book it has, been known to contain over 2,000 feathers: Considering that this nest is probably the most elaborate commonly built in England, it is strange that so little seems to be known of the manner of its building; Two seasons ago I fell in with a pair whose nest was being made in one of those wooded glens. (or " bunnies " as they are called there) which break in a few places the low terraced cliffs of the south-west. Hampshire coast. The chosen site was in a tree, dead and. lichen-clad,. the nest appearing as a slight swelling in a fork some twenty feet up. The preoccupation of the little builders and, the steep slope of the ground made- it easy to watch through field glasses all that went on, and. it could, clearly be seen that instead of being built into the .form of &sphere and then pierced at the side (as has been rather absurdly suggested) it was built in rings ,upward from the foundaz tions. At the stage then. reached—a. simple cup—it looked very like a chaffinch's. No human craftsmen now take such infinite care over their work as these "bottle-tits," which but for the exceptional length of their tails might be the smallest birds of Europe.
Instead of being, like a house, built first in. the mass and decorated later, each stage was finished before the next was begun—first the bents forming the walls, then the lichen outside, and last the soft inner lining. Never by any chance did both builders go to the nest simultaneously : they seemed afraid that their weight (which can hardly bend perceptibly the smallest twigs of an apple tree) might crush the frail structure, or perhaps they disliked confusing one another by. both working at once. If the two came up together, which very often happened, one would wait patiently till the first had finished before approaching nearer than the, upper branches. Then the first waited in the same way, for they always went off in company and invariably returned bringing the same kind of material—a feather each or each with lichen, never one with lichen. and the other with a feather.
The clutch, of eggs laid. is a large one—I have even found as many as fourteen, though that was in Germany, where the birds have generally white heads and, are regarded as a separate geographical race. All titmice are fearless, and it is typical of the long- tailed especially that, unlike most birds, it has not distinct alarm-note. Its incessant small-talk, differs, only in pitch and tone from that of its relatives—a different dialect rather than a separate language—but there is one important addition. This is its characteristic note, difficult both to describe and to imitate, but quite un- mistakable when once learnt. It is a harsh, almost snapping sound; but on so miniature a scale as to be nearly musical to our ears.
Of the hardships- which long-tailed.. tits must suffer;
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in winter something has already been said. Not an inconsiderable one to all birds which live on insects must be the fact that at the very time when their food is scarcest, the daylight hours for finding it are also fewest.
Last winter, coming home in the dusk on one of the shortest days—There were four or five in December all equally brief according to the calendar—I passed two flocks of long-tailed tits still searching for food. In the second case it was almost an hour after sunset, and on this dull day the small flitting shapes could hardly 'have been picked out without the help of their frequent contact-calls.
When the Severn was out in full flood at the opening of this year I watched another flock working through an inundated coppice, their tails sometimes almost dipping into the water as they hung from the lower twigs.
In very bad times the flow of cheerful notes almost ceases and the flock moves along mournfully, like a funeral procession. I have even seen all the members of a party take to gnat-catching—springing up out of the hedges and standing literally on end in the air, the small fluttering wings not in the least breaking the 'exaggerated vertical line of the body. As they are not at all expert flycatchers, this queer position was main- tained for what seemed a very long time before the .insect's fate was decided.
Seen in proportion birds are no more uniform in their habits than we are ourselves—at least, there seems to the detached observer to be more true individuality 'displayed by long-tailed titmice than by 'modern -men. Only in broad outline can -we hope to describe their lives, -for it is their nature to be wanderers and eccentrics, and, to the bird-lover at least, the secret of their fascination is that they show him unexpected
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