Nuts as Lure The arrival of winter has brought the
bird-table into prominence, and I would make a plea for other birds than the tits. They are the gayest and most amusing to watch ; but what with nesting-boxes and suspended fat their numbers are now so great that they may utterly destroy a fruit- crop, as Mr. Bush records of his own pear-crop. The most generally popu- lar form of food is the nut. Finches of all sorts, as of course nut-hatches, will come in crowds to a diet of well-divided nuts, and if they are put through a mill even robins and all the-thrush tribe are attracted. The flocking of tits, both blue and great, seems to be a general experience this year and the size of some of the flocks is surprising. A writer in The Countryman—that invincible quarterly—records that these flocks maintain 'a routine governed by the clock. They are to be found at particular hours at particular spots. Such punctuality is, of course, common to a good many animals—to partridges, which migrate from grass to stubble in the early afternoon, moles which grow busy at three- hour intervals, badgers which emerge at quite definite summer and winter hours; hares which fetch favourite compasses at known hours and grey squirrels which play in certain trees at certain morning hours. Not the least regular are little owls, which will face any daylight hours, but are to be seen and heard- most surely in this place and that as twilight begins.
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