SIDE IvIGHTS ON BIRDS 



desire to experiment becomes apparent. The 

 yellow and the grey cling with little or no deviation 

 to the localities chosen by their remote ancestry. 

 The pied wagtail, on the other hand, makes definite 

 attempts to discover an altogether new nesting site, 

 and then adapts itself to new conditions with a 

 zeal worthy of greater success than is usually at- 

 tained. It might well be thought that our railways 

 with their constant noise and disturbances would 

 be instinctively shunned by all peace-loving birds. 

 What then shall be said of the pied wagtails, which 

 built their nests on a ledge beneath a railway wagon 

 in a siding near Crewe, and when the wagon subse- 

 quently made long journeys to different parts of the 

 kingdom still faithfully attended their charge and 

 eventually reared their brood ? Or, again, of the 

 blackbirds which nested between the points on the 

 North Eastern line near Filey, and continued to sit 

 bravely notwithstanding the thundering trains over- 

 head ? Or of the oyster-catchers that scooped a 

 hollow on the railway track near Blair Atholl and 

 reared their young notwithstanding the constant 

 traffic ? 



Many examples are recorded of birds departing 

 from the normal choice of a nesting site. We have 

 instances of herons and rooks nesting on the ground. 

 Mr. Sydney Smith recorded a case of a greenfinch 

 nesting in the grass of an open field. Mr. Riley 

 Fortune gave a photograph of a dipper's nest in a 

 tree, and both pheasants, waterhens, and domestic 

 fowls have been found nesting at a considerable 

 height from the earth. 



The habits of certain birds-of-prey, especially the 

 buzzard, of bringing freshly-torn branches with 

 green leaves to the nest as though to afford shade 

 to the nestlings, has also been noticed. In relation 

 to the sparrow-hawk Mr. J. H. Owen wrote in 



32 



