st in a hole possesses
many advantages. Its preparation does not entail very much labour.
It has not to be built; it merely needs furnishing, and this does
not occupy long if the occupiers have Spartan tastes. The tits in
question were luxuriously inclined, if we may judge by the amount
of moss that they carried into that hole. By the time it was finished
it must have been considerably softer than the bed that was provided
for my accommodation!

Moss in plenty was to be had for the taking; the trunks and larger
branches of the trees which surrounded the "hotel" were covered with
soft green moss. The tits experienced no difficulty in ripping this
off with the beak.

The entrance to the nest hole faced downwards and was guarded on one
side by the wall of the house, and on the other by a beam, so that
it was not altogether easy of access even to a bird. Consequently
a good deal of the moss gathered by the tits did not reach its
destination; they let it fall while they were negotiating the
entrance.

When a piece of moss dropped from the bird's beak, no attempt was
made to retrieve it, although it only fell some 10 feet on to the
floor of the verandah. In this respect all birds behave alike. They
never attempt to reclaim that which they have let fall. A bird will
spend the greater part of half an hour in wrenching a twig from a
tree: yet, if this is dropped while being carried to the nest, the
bird seems to lose all further interest in it.

By the end of the first day's work at the nest, the pair of tits had
left quite a respectable collection of moss on the floor. This was
swept away next morning. On the second day much less was dropped;
practice had taught the tits how best to enter the nest hole.

It will be noticed that I speak of "tits." I believe I am correct
in so doing; I think that both cock and hen work at the nest. I cannot
say for certain, for I am not able to distinguish a lady- from a
gentleman-tit. I never saw them together at the nest, but I noticed
that the bird bringing material to it sometimes flew direct from a
tree and at others alighted on the projecting end of a roof beam which
the carpenters had been too lazy to saw off. It is my belief that
the bird that used to alight on the beam was not the same as the one
that flew direct from the tree. Birds are creatures of habit. If you
observe a mother bird feeding her young, you will notice that she,
when not disturbed, almost invariably approaches th