January 21—These wintry _morn-fogs when the world ts white "with frozen snow which sunesy days have failed {0 melt, 1 often wonder what there dan possibly be in the country to Interest me! no hares, no weasels ho watererats no. Meldemice, no gild: Ing snakes, no' jumping frogs," no Tesping Ashes... ould tu fast' continue mest fndennitely with these negatives, but would "have to stop When Teame tothe birds: for the fuet" remains that, ike Kipiiig's Binkle, they are Our Bestest Friends In'the country and. can be relied Spon te provide n tottie mild amuse= emt, come rain come snow, "come weather fair or fouls Asi to pres ide me with ay example. of "this theory. my car was attracted by Birdssonge this mornings it was une snaily loud and. continuous, "under Such wintry conditions, sot follow dit up. end. witnessed this tle Scmedy. "Three" male Blackotnds 'Sere competing for the fovoury tody' Blackbird higher up "la the free: one gave a litre phrase of sent Which the other two promptly mate Sand "improved upon' the "next ted by the other two: "and 30 "the Took his {urn and was promptly caps
Same went on until one of te ltd, sbvieusly' the Caruso of "the party Surat into. "a glorious. song theme which "ort "the other two most Sbviousiy among the "aso rane": They vere furious and 20, bird-like few st Sno another's throat with: bill and Stow: the ight started in tmid-ale "ne two bird came whiting Gown to the round tke a black Catherine wheel sninat the: white snow: the clit continued on the ground tit the we parted and few back to the tree hen! as my eve followed them T so, they aid, that while the Int was fon. Caruso' and his gititriend were r..'t0'that was that! I Inuched "ud tam linest sure the Blackbird Mid fon for the to" ow January 30—My recent adventure with the local Titmice has had smusing sequel which T. think Is worth recording. The frequency with which Tits came to my lures was Increasing dally. but one dim culty soon Secame apparent: either our. Lesser Srey Tits have weaker bills than the Temtits of Englond—which ts quite "rely. since the Great Tit of our Teulish gardens Is 9 very powerful "ttle bird—or. the local peanuts have very touch shells: the fact remains hat my visiting Tits failed to crack vethane Afty rer cent. of the nuts. £0, order to help them. T broke omen "he two ends of exch nut, and refilled "he wire skewers. The ' effect was most unexpected, for the Soarraw? ona Bulbuls at once acquired new Sabits and learnt how to feed from caneing wire! The Bulbul's idea woe genious and simple: he merely vataneed himself ons nearby twie swine up and down on it until teame within reach of the peanuts: hie got a good peck about every four wings and seemed quite content with that. T defeated him by cutting off the convenient twigs, but that did not overcome the problem of the Sparrows. These bold and hardy little birds actually drove away the Tits and took charge of their food: they Guiekly Tearnt how to make up for the lack of that great curved hind-toc which enables a Tomtit to hang to any vertical perch: they mere-gripped with their front toes and salon their down-(urned tail just 1 Woodpecker devs: if they found themselves falling off, they beat their wings a5 a Kestral' doos when It hovers; and there is no doubt about that within three days they became almost as effleiont og the Tits (though obviously not so graceful) in clinging to the swing perch! I om left with the idea that If birds can acquire new methods and habits such as these In three days, it makes the generally accepts theory of evolution. locke ike a slow coach.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.