It was all very well for Mrs Puss to get up the great cedar-tree and
put her paw down the great hole, but if it had been the thorn-tree, that
was just coming out all over beautiful white scented blossoms, hanging
in long silvery wreaths, Mrs Puss would have found out her mistake.
There was a hole there, and there was a nest in it, but pussy's paw
could no more have gone down it than a cannon-ball would run through a
tobacco-pipe. Such a tiny round hole; such a depth; and such a tiny
little round pair of birds, with blue and white heads, green backs, and
yellow breasts, with a black stripe down the centre; such tiny black
beaks; in short, such a tiny pair of tits were Tom and Tomasina, who had
made their nest right down at the bottom of this little hole. Bustling,
busy little bodies they were, too, popping in and out with little bits
of soft wool, down, or small feathers; and then, tiniest of all were
first about a dozen morsels of eggs, and then the nest full of little
callow birds, with all that dozen of little beaks up and open for food.
In and out, in and out, till any one would have thought the little
tomtit wings would have been tired out; but, no; in and out still, and
backwards and forwards, bringing tiny grubs and caterpillars, and all
manner of little insects in those little open beaks, to satisfy the
craving little family at home. Tom-tit told his wife that he could not
understand it, but thought that when they were mated all they would have
to do would be to fly about the garden, hopping from twig to twig, and
picking all the little buds through the long sunshiny days, and sleeping
at night upon some high, safe bough, rolled up like little balls of
feathers.
"Oh! but," said Mrs Tit, "only to think of it; such a tiny body as I am
to have twelve children, and all the while that great gawky, Mrs
Stockdove, only to have one, for the other she had rolled out of the
nest and was killed."
"Nest," said Tom, "I never saw such a nest; nothing but a few sticks
laid across one another. No wonder the poor little thing rolled out;
there was nothing to save it. But it is not every one who has so tidy
and neat a little body for a wife as I have. So come, wifey, bustle
about, for the children are all crying as though they had not eaten for
a week; and I declare that I'm as hungry as any of them."
And away flew the little tits, ridding the garden of thousands of insect
plagues, and clearing off nuisances that would have destroyed half the
fruit and vegetables in the garden. As for the little crawling flies
and other insects, it was wonderful how fast they were snapped up; and
though people would say that Tom-tit and his wife did a great deal of
mischief by pecking the buds, it was quite a mistake; for though they
pecked the buds, it was almost always when some sly little insect had
made itself a hole in the bud, where it would have laid eggs, and its
young would have totally destroyed the tree. Todkins, the old gardener,
used to be in a fine way about it, and laid all sorts of charges against
not only Tom-tit but all the rest of the birds, and used to want to set
traps, and spread poisoned wheat, and get guns to shoot them with; but
the master of Greenlawn would not let him; so the old man used to
grumble and say there would be no fruit and no vegetables, for the birds
would eat everything up, seed, fruit, and all. But the master of
Greenlawn knew best, for he thought that if the birds were killed or
frightened away, the insects, and grubs, and caterpillars, and slugs,
and snails, and all sorts of other uncomfortable things, would come and
eat the fruit and vegetables, and eat them all up, while the birds would
be sure to leave some. And, sure enough, he was quite right, for
somebody else, who used to kill and frighten away all the birds, had all
his crops destroyed; while at Greenlawn, where there were hundreds and
hundreds of birds, there was always plenty of fruit and vegetables; for
the birds very seldom touched the fruit if they could get plenty of
other food. Certainly sometimes Mr Sparrow used to pick out the finest
and ripest cherries, or have a good peck at a juicy pear. The
starlings, too, would gobble down the elder-berries, and sometimes the
greenfinches used to go to see how the radish seeds were getting on, and
taking tight hold of the thread-like shoots, pull them out of the
ground, and leave them upon the top of the bed, fast asleep, for they
never grew any more. Still, take it altogether, there was always twice
as much fruit where there were plenty of birds, as where they were all
driven away.