Great tit
Good Morning, Midnight (Reginald Hill Edition)The Great tit is revealed as the apparent small hat perched on a woman’s hair in Hat Bowler’s dreamlike encounter with the Crunch Witch. Its brief transformation from ornament to bird turns a moment of unease into recognition and reassurance.
Appearance and Reveal
The woman’s grey hair is coiled in a bun, beneath what first seems to be a small, feathery hat. A blackbird flies up and settles on her shoulder; then the supposed hat rises from the bun and stretches its wings. Hat Bowler sees that it is a Great tit. The bird’s identity emerges through movement rather than description, making the detail that seemed strange suddenly legible.
Role in the Scene
The reveal follows the blackbird’s alarm call, which has already brought Hat Bowler to a halt as the woman appears in the doorway. The birds shape the encounter’s changing mood: the blackbird’s call signals alarm, while the Great tit’s recognizable form reassures Hat Bowler. Curious about where the encounter may lead, he moves forward again.
