The sun shone full on that spot, and they had met for warmth and for company.

The tits and wrens were moving quietly about in the bush; others were sitting idly or preening their feathers on the twigs or the ground.

Most of them were making some kind of small sound--little exclamatory chirps, and a variety of chirrupings, producing the effect of a pleasant conversation going on among them.

This was suddenly suspended on my appearance, but the alarm was soon over, and, seeing me seated on a fallen stone and, motionless, they took no further notice of me.

Two blackbirds were there, sitting a little way apart on the bare ground; these were silent, the raggedest, rustiest-looking members of that little company; for they were moulting, and their drooping wings and tails had many unsightly gaps in them where the old feathers had dropped out before the new ones had grown.