CURIOSITIES OF WILD LIFE. 79 



humble bee to take possession of a wren's nest and 

 use it for her own domestic requirements, but 

 I imagine it is not often that such a small creature 

 aspires to either the room or elevation afforded 

 by a squirrel's drey. Three years ago, whilst 

 searching a plantation on the slopes of the Pennine 

 range, the small boy who was doing my tree- 

 climbing for me suddenly withdrew his hand 

 from a squirrel's nest I had requested him to 

 investigate, and made a startled exclamation. 

 In response to an enquiry on the subject of his 

 alarm, he answered, " Tharr's summat quear 

 aboot this ! " And he hurled the whole thing 

 viciously to the ground before I could stop him. 

 I natural^ expected to find an ill-fated family 

 of baby squirrels in the shattered structure, but 

 my surprise was as great as that of the boy's 

 when I found a humble bees' nest and a dead 

 stoat amongst the moss, dry grass, and twigs. 



The trunk of the fir-tree was branchless for 

 a yard and a half from the butt, and the drey 

 between thirty and forty feet from the ground, 

 and how the stoat — which had apparently been 

 dead before the humble bee took possession — 

 came there is a mystery to me. I cut his tail off, 

 and brought it away as a souvenir of the strange 

 occurrence. 



A friend of mine, whilst taking a walk one 

 day through a Surrey wood, heard a jay com- 



