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Updated: June 5, 2025
One year, when all the places were taken, I suppose, a tomtit, in her embarrassment, spied the slit of the letter-box protected by its little roof, at the right of the parsonage gate. She slipped in, was satisfied with the result of her explorations, and brought the materials to build a nest.
A raven, perched above him on a lonely branch, croaked dismally, till Andy fancied he could hear words of reproach in the sounds, while a little tomtit chattered and twittered on a neighbouring bough, as if he enjoyed and approved of all the severe things the raven uttered.
In the month of March, the chrysalides burst through the skin, and drop on the ground, when they may be seen crawling in immense numbers along the deer paths as they pass from west to east. The only birds observed in winter are grouse, ptarmigan, a small species of wood-pecker, butcher-bird, and the diminutive tomtit.
Cook says Omai "would take no advice, but permitted himself to be made the dupe of every designing knave." Of these red feathers Cook says they were of such value that "not more than might be got from a tomtit, would purchase a hog of 40 or 50 pounds weight." Nails and beads were not looked at, although they had previously been very acceptable.
So the Chicadees said it was all nonsense, and went off, singing and chasing one another through the woods, led by Tomtit singing a new song in which he made fun of the travellers. Tom Tom Tiddy-Mouse! Hid away in our house, Hid his brother in the cellar, Wasn't he a silly feller? But their cousins were quite serious. They picked out wise leaders and formed themselves into bands.
"But I have a frightful temper. Satan only knows what I will do in it yet. Would you not be frightened of me?" "No fear," I laughed; I would defy you." "A tomtit might as well defy me," he said with amusement. "Well, big as you are, a tomtit having such superior facilities for getting about could easily defy you," I replied. "Yes, unless it was caged," he said.
In Gilbert and Sullivan's "Mikado," Nanki Poo, hearing a tomtit by the river reiterating a colorless "tit willow," asks the bird if its foolish song is due to a feeble mind or a careless diet. "Is it weakness of intellect, Birdie," I cried, "Or a rather tough worm In your little inside?" But all that the dear little birdie replied, Was, "Willow, Tit Willow, Tit Willow."
The Nuthatches and other cousins of the Chickadees took this warning seriously, and set about learning how and when to go; but Tomtit, who led his brothers, only laughed and turned a dozen wheels around a twig that served him for a trapeze. "Go to the south?" said he. "Not I; I am too well contented here; and as for frost and snow, I never saw any and have no faith in them."
I was like one bewitched, and thought these very birds were discussing us. The greenfinch said: "Old Mouillard, look! Here's Princess Goldenlocks at your garden gate." The tomtit said: "Look out, old man, or she'll outwit you." The blackbird said: "I have heard of her from my grandfather, who lived in the Champs Elysees. She was much admired there."
Then he made a sweep with his hand and pointed, to let Quonab know the buck had gone across and he himself must go around. But he lingered still and with his eyes swept the near woods. Then, dim gray among the gray twigs, he saw a slight movement, so slight it might have been made by the tail of a tomtit.
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