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Updated: July 7, 2025
There were blackbirds with yellow bills, who advanced boldly over the snow up to the very feet of the distributing fairy; robin redbreasts, nearly as tame, hopping gayly over the stones, bobbing their heads and puffing out their red breasts; and tomtits, prudently watching awhile from the tops of neighboring trees, then suddenly taking flight, and with quick, sharp cries, seizing the grain on the wing.
Thus we went at a slow pace to Grubner's lodge, and all the way we rode we met not a soul save Cousin Maud, and she only nodded to me, by reason that she could not guess that a living human creature was breathing beneath the furs and coverlets at my side. Young Kubbeling on the box, and the ravens and tomtits and redbreasts in the woods had not many words from us.
It was in the afternoon of the last day of May, and Hallam seemed to have put on a more radiant beauty for the occasion. The sun was so bright, the park so green, the garden so sweet and balmy. Heart's-ease were every-where, honeysuckles filled the air, and in the wood behind, the blackbirds whistled, and the chaffinches and tomtits kept up a merry, musical chattering.
They returned, and the bear scrambled up the tree, expecting to amuse himself finely by frightening the young tomtits. “ ‘Take care,’ said the wolf; ‘you had better be careful. The tomtits are little; but little enemies are sometimes very troublesome.’ “ ‘Who is afraid of a tomtit?’ said the bear. “So saying, he poked his great black nose into the nest. “ ‘Who is here?’ said he; ‘what are you?’
The boys got their share and a big share but the biggest share, by all odds, was eaten by the birds the blackbirds, who lived there very comfortably all the year, and sang in return the best they could; the orioles, pretty birds of passage, who helped them in summer, and the sparrows, and the warblers of every variety; and the tomtits, swarms of them, with feathers as thick as your fingers, and they hung on the branches and pecked at a grape or scratched a pear veritable little beasts of prey, whose only "thank you" was a shrill cry like a saw.
Alwynn was encompassed on every side by kingfishers and elaborate bone nests, while Ruth's clear-cut face looked out from among long-tailed tomtits, arranged one on each side of a nest crowded with eggs, on which a strong light had been thrown. Dare was still looking at Ruth's photograph, when Mr. Alwynn came in. "Do you wish to speak to Ruth?" he asked, gravely. "Now, at once."
Hence, Woodpeckers, Creepers, and Tomtits do not migrate. They simply scatter more widely over the country, instead of keeping in the woods, and thus accommodate themselves to their more limited supplies of food. The Swallow tribes, that catch their food in the air, are the first to migrate, because the swarms of insects are vastly diminished by the early frosts of autumn.
Even as early as December the tomtits attack the buds, then in their sheaths, of the birch, clinging to the very extremities of the slender boughs. I once found a young birch growing on the ledge of a brick bridge, outside the parapet, and some forty or fifty feet from the ground.
In their rear it seemed as if a barrier of brush-wood had bristled up to prevent them from retracing their steps; while, in front of them, the grassy lawns spread out so invitingly, that they glided along the soft slopes, without thought of choosing their way. 'And the birds are coming with us, too, said Albine. 'It is the tomtits this time. Don't you see them?
“The poor birds screamed out with terror. ‘Go away! Go away!’ said they. “ ‘What do you mean by making such a noise,’ said he, ‘and talking so to me? I will teach you better.’ So he put his great paw on the nest, and crowded it down until the poor little birds were almost stifled. Presently he left them, and went away. “The young tomtits were terribly frightened, and some of them were hurt.
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