Some Remarkable Nests and Eggs. 51 



could be mentioned in regard to many other 

 species. 



Some birds never dream of building a nest of 

 their own, but remain content to use the old home 

 of another species. The Long-Eared Owl and the 

 Kestrel Hawk afford conspicuous examples of this 

 kind of domestic idleness, for they content them- 

 selves with the disused nests of Crows, Magpies, 

 Herons, Sparrow Hawks, Ravens, Wood Pigeons, 

 and even condescend to utilise a second-hand 

 Squirrel's drey. The Long -Eared Owl has been 

 known, when unable to find a suitable deserted 

 home, to descend to the earth and drop its eggs into 

 some sheltered hollow there, and the Kestrel Hawk 

 often deposits its eggs on the ledge of a precipice, 

 but has never been known, so far as I am aware, 

 to attempt to make any sort of a nest of its own 

 beyond that afforded by the undigested bones and 

 down of mice which the bird ejects in almost dry 

 pellets. These pellets, or " castings " as they are 

 called by naturalists, are sometimes very plentiful 

 on the ledge of a favourite cliff, and when broken 

 up by the Kestrel form a beautiful soft bed for its 

 eggs to rest upon. 



Thrushes and Blackbirds both occasionally build 

 on the remains of each other's old nests, and 

 Robins, Pied Was^tails, and different members of 

 the Tit family have been known to build inside 

 them. A few years ago I found a very strange- 

 looking Hedge Sparrow^'s nest in a bundle of pea- 



