HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



197 



catcher {Muscicapa gnsola), which, year after year, 

 builds in precisely the same spot. Early and late, 

 the business of his and her life seems to be the supply 

 of the commissariat department. Their keenness of 

 vision is marvellous, and from a favourite station, an 

 upright of the same rustic archway before alluded to, 

 they discover and dart upon the insects which alight 

 upon the leaves of a plum-tree some fifteen feet dis- 

 tant, returning to their post to spring aloft, some foot 

 or more, to catch with the well-known snap some 

 unfortunate fly coming within their ken. And when 

 the late afternoon sun-rays are glinting through the 



Fig. 121. — Spotted Flycatcher [MnscicctJ>a grisola). 



hazel bushes surrounding my orchard, how the pair 

 delight to take their station on some stake, or flit 

 from tree to tree, to snap the winged atoms sporting 

 in the golden beams, sometimes gracefully hovering 

 for many seconds over the feathery grass heads ! Nor 

 do they fail, when smaller cheer is scarce, to lay my 

 apiary under contribution, waylaying the tired homing 

 bee, and carrying him off to the branch of an apple- 

 tree, there carefully extracting the sting before ven- 

 turing to swallow the toothsome morsel. 



The flycatcher is one of the members cf the Peace 

 Society, and only when driven by aggressive acts on 

 the part of others does he ever show fight, in defence of 

 all he holds dear. This summer a pair — should I not 

 rather say " the " pair ? — had but just completed their 

 nest, when a band of those noisy marauders, Passer 

 domcstiais, in an evil hour made a descent, and nearly 

 demoHshed the nest. The little builders uttered the 

 most plaintive cries, and that day returned no more ; 

 but I was most agreeably surprised, on the day 

 following, to find them busily repairing the damage — 

 ultimately safely rearing a brood. The male bird, 

 however, became so fierce that he attacked with utmost 



fury every sparrow that put in an appearance within 

 many yards of his home, even when not on evil intent 

 bound ; and quite ludicrous was it to see how the 

 beetle-browed robbers cowered as he dashed down 

 upon them to chase them from his domain. The pair, 

 for a long time after the attack, always uttered the 

 most pathetic cries when I appeared in the garden, 

 either to distract my attention or to engage my 

 sympathy. They are a most trustful pair, and often 

 catch flitting insects within a few inches of my face. 

 Seldom, however, will they enter their nest whilst 

 one's attention is directed towards it, but after a while 

 fluttering before it return to their station on 

 post or branch, repeating this manoeuvre several 

 times, before finally, yielding to their parental 

 impulses, they at last dash in, 



Api-opos to nests, what curious situations my 

 pets sometimes select for their construction ! 

 For the past four or five years I have suspended 

 under the overhanging thatch of my kitchen, 

 etc., a small square box, having a circular hole 

 cut in the front. This, I hoped, would be 

 taken possession of by some small bird, the 

 magnificent foliage of a luxuriant Hcdcra den- 

 tata almost hiding it from view. It, however, 

 remained untenanted and unused until the past 

 summer, when, to my great surprise, a pair of 

 blackbirds built their nest upon its exposed 

 top, and this notwithstanding that it was within 

 reach of hand, and, although sheltered from 

 the rain, exposed to the full glare of the sun 

 and the view of every passer-by. Added to 

 this, it might reasonably have been expected 

 that the frequent "banging" of the scullery 

 door, within a yard of it, would have scared a 

 far less timid bird than the blackbird. Un- 

 fortunately, seeing the evil eye of a prowling cat 

 fixed upon it, I injudiciously placed beneath the box 

 a long stretch of wire netting — with just the result 

 that I might naturally have looked for — the nest 

 was deserted, another being constructed in some ivy 

 clothing the trunk and branches of an apple-tree 

 hard by, 



"It wins my admiration 

 To view the structure of that little work — 

 A bird's nest. Mark it well within, without ; 

 No tool had he that wrought ; no knife to cut ; 

 No nail to fix ; no bodkin to insert ; 

 No glue to join ; his little beak was all ; 

 And yet how nicely finished ! What nice hand. 

 With every implement and means of art, 

 And twenty years' apprenticeship to boot. 

 Could make me such another ? " 



Hurdis. 



Prolongation of the Tadpole Condition.— 

 Do the tadpoles of the common frog ever go through 

 two seasons before their metamorphosis? Last year 

 I had one alive and healthy in an aquarium up to 

 9th of Januar}', when unfortunately it was injured 

 and killed. — Henry Ullyctt, Folkestone. 



