54 Our Bird Friexds. 



tucked up for the night under the thatch of a rick, 

 Avhilst " cocks' nests," bulk only a few feet below, 

 were left quite unoccupied. I have, how^ever, found 

 3oth Blue Tits and Cole Tits sleeping in these un- 

 finished Wrens' nests, and they did not at all relish 

 being visited by a glaring bull's-eye lantern at ten 

 o'clock on a dark, cold winter's night. 



Some ground-building birds, such as the Red- 

 shank, are quite fastidious about the selection of a 

 suitable site for their nests, and scratch out a lot 

 of little hollows in and close beside big tufts of 

 dead grass before they finally decide upon lining 

 one and commence to lay their eggs in it. 



It is truly surprising to consider to what an 

 extent Avild creatures unconsciously help each other. 

 Rabbits scratch the ground a good deal during the 

 night, in the springtime especially, and dislodge 

 quantities of nice soft moss and dead grass, which 

 birds are ver}^ glad to use for nest-building purposes. 

 The same lively quadrupeds also quarrel and tight 

 durinof the hours of darkness, and in the course ol 

 their struggles often pluck and scratch liberal 

 quantities of down off each other's bodies. In the 

 morning along comes some sharp-eyed feathered 

 dweller in the neighbourhood, and takes it away 

 forthwitJi to line a nest. Cows and horses rub 

 themselves against gate-posts and walls, and in 

 doine so detach hairs which are very useful to a 

 dozen kinds of birds amongst which such material 

 is fashionable for nest lining. Sheep lose tufts of 



