Feeding axd Protection of Young Birds. 125 



fajiiily under the same roof, so I timed their 

 efforts and found no appreciable difference hi then 

 performances at either end of the day. Whilst I 

 was watching, however, I saw two curions things. 

 A stray Starling waited his opportunity and then 

 examined both nests, one after the other, during 

 the absence of the parent birds. Whether he was 

 an inspector of schools or not I do not know ; 

 but after having a violent altercation with a ])air 

 of House Sparrows into whose nesting-hole he 

 unsuccessfully tried to force his way, he flew olf* 

 The other strange thing I saw was a ]]arn Swallow' 

 running about on the ground hke a Wagtail, only 

 not half so nimbly, and feeding upon flies that had 

 settled in the snug shelter of a thick row of pea- 

 sticks close beside where I was sitting. 



Sometimes parent birds And food for their young 

 ones very easily indeed. About the middle of June 

 I was staying at a lonely farndiousc away u]3 a little 

 dale in the North of England. The May Fly hap- 

 pened to be " on," as anglers term it, and every 

 rock and stone wall by the beck was covered. As 

 there were very few Trout indeed about, owing to 

 the depredations of Herons and Otters, the birds 

 had a most enjoyable time of it; and I Avatched a 

 })air of Wheatears enter their nesting-hole in a 

 rocky bank no less than forty-two times in an hour 

 with bundles of May Flies, which they often did 

 not travel more than a score of yards away to catch. 

 In a day or two the glut of these insects had 



