36 6^67? Bird Friends. 



wall, or bank, in which to hide and have its nest 

 well covered and protected : but not long ago I was 

 shown one built in the old nest of some other bird 

 situated in a thin, straggling hedgerow, and the little 

 lodger's eggs and newly-hatched chicks were quite 

 open to the sky. 



Thus we have instances of complete departure from 

 rule in respect of architecture, materials, and situa- 

 tion. I shall have more to say about this presently, 

 but let me here turn aside to point out that 

 some birds are very wise and others very foolish. 

 I have known a Song Thrush have its first nest 

 blown down by a gale of wind, and immediately 

 set to work and build a new one, the foundation 

 materials of which were so twisted round the 

 branches upon which it rested that it was impossible 

 for the wind again to dislodge it. On the other 

 hand, a bird of this species will try again and again 

 to make its nest on some ledge of rock to which 

 she has taken a foncy, despite the fact that every 

 time the structure assumes certain proportions it 

 topples over and rolls away to destruction. 



Some feathered folk are extremely idle, whilst 

 others are just as industrious. A i^w years ago 

 a small farm boy in the North of England took 

 it into his head that he Avould build a pair of 

 Jackdaws a nest in a hole in the wall of an old 

 barn. He did so, and a pair of birds came along, 

 adopted it, and reared a happy family of young 

 ones in it. But, of course, there is another side to 



