218 FEATHERED RESIDENTS IS THE GROUNDS OF TERRICK HOUSE. 



it would add still more to the attractiveness of a bird^, whose unrivalled 

 beauty of plumage, and sprightliness of disposition, to say nothing of the 

 eminent services it renders us, ought even now to give it an high place in 

 our favour. 



Like some other species these birds will, if unmolested, bring up their family 

 in the same hole year after year; they also occupy this hole as a roosting 

 place throughout the winter. 



Most birds appear to take infinite delight in bathing; nor is the Blue 

 Tit at all backward in this refreshing and health-preserving exercise; it 

 performs its ablutions frequently, regularly, and (weather permitting) at all 

 seasons: I have often watched it at the close of a short winter's day, taking 

 its bath with evident enjoyment, just before retiring to roost; and from 

 repeated observation it would seem to be in the constant habit of doing so. 



Clos3 at hand, among the ivy, we discern a bunch of dry brown leaves, 

 with here and there the skeleton of one, which on a nearer inspection we 

 find forms the outer portion of the nest of the Redbreast, {Erythaca ruhecula.) 

 If for the purpose of satisfying our curiosity as to the contents of the nest, 

 we cause the owner to vacate her seat, a cry, low, wailing, and plaintive in 

 the extreme will presently be heard — a cry so full of mournful sadness as 

 to go to the heart of the hearer, its frequent repetition generating a feeling 

 of pain from which he is glad to escape. On looking into the nest we are 

 astonished to find five pure white eggs, smooth and glossy as those of the 

 Wryneck: we ask ourselves can these be 'bona fide' eggs of the Redbreast, 

 so widely different from those usually produced by that bird? The presence 

 of the owner of the nest assures us that such is the fact. 1 have met 

 with several nests of this bird containing eggs of this character, and some 

 equally strange varieties. This is one of the earliest birds to begin nesting. 

 I have known of a nest in the month of January, and I have at times 

 met with it throughout every succeeding month till August. 



In front of this summer-house stands a yew tree, near the extremity of 

 one of whose branches, and at an elevation of some eighteen or twenty feet, 

 a nest is seen, which at the distance we are below, we cannot at all make 

 out: on ascending to it we are somewhat surprised to find it to be the domed 

 nest of the Common Wren, (Trotjhjdyfes vulgaris;) probably it had been 

 driven to select this elevated and rather uncommon site, for I have only met 

 with two instances of the kind, from having had its hopes repeatedly crushed 

 when a more lowly situation had been chosen. Nests of this species are to 

 be found in a great variety of situations: — In a stump on the hedge-bank, 

 close to the ground; worked in between the stems of the ivy which adorns 

 the wall, or which begirts the hedge- row or forest tree; in the midst of a 

 thick hawthorn bush, or quick-set hedge; in a dead fence; in the side of 

 a hay-rick; high up in the interior of the thatched roof of barn or hovel; 

 and in a vast number of situations besides. 



We often meet with instances of this bird building, or partly building 



