288 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



Golden Oriole, which I bought of Mr. Baker of Cambridge, 

 who accounted for its condition by telHng me tliat it was 

 killed and mutilated by a Grey Shrike. The affair hap- 

 pened in this wise. Both birds had nests at Falkonswaerd, 

 in North Brabant, and close together, and jealousy, the 

 destroyer of amity, crept in between the two mothers : at 

 least I can only suppose it was this which incited the 

 butcher-bird, in a moment of vindictive malice, to rip up the 

 Oriole, so that the King of the Netherlands' falconer and 

 Mr. Baker actually saw the unfortunate bird's entrails hang 

 out upon the ground. 



Nuthatch. 



April 24th, 1872. Led by her clamour, I detected the 

 tail of a Nuthatch sticking out of a hole forty feet up the 

 bole of a Scotch fir tree. A pair of Starlings were looking 

 on. April 30th, one of the Starlings was in the hole and 

 the Nuthatch had gone. Three days before I had seen 

 what I think was a Nuthatch's nest only tivo feet from the 

 ground. It was a small hole in a beech, plastered around 

 with the customary mud, and lined with flakes of Scotch fir 

 bark. I took note of another beech tree in which a small 

 crack or crevice had been filled with mud, evidently by a 

 Nuthatch, but for what purpose I cannot divine, as it was 

 far too small for a nest. There was a Starling's nest under- 

 neath it. A similarity in breeding habits often brings the 

 Starling and Nuthatch into juxtaposition. I have seen 

 holes which were alternately the property of Starlings, 

 Nuthatches, and Bats. One such was in a large ash tree 

 at Braconash ; and in a second hole in the same tree I 

 caught the Barn Owl and Stock Dove. 



At Hethel I have found and taken the Q.gg of the Nut- 

 hatch from a hole in a brick wall ; and I am credibly in- 



