NORIVAV 35 



May 30. 



Tuesday, the 30th of May, was a warm, showery day. 

 Before breakfast Alston and I went to take the eggs from 

 the Northern Tit's nest which he found on Saturday, and 

 at which he had shot one of the birds (since either mislaid 

 or stolen by the hotel cat). After about an hour's work 

 with chisel and hammer, I succeeded in enlarging the 

 hole sufficiently for Alston to take out both the nest and 

 the nine eggs it contained. The nest, which was situated 

 in a hole in an old birch in the open ground with no fir- 

 trees very near the place, was composed of moss lined 

 warmly with sheep's wool and goat's hair, but there was 

 no appearance in it of alder-bark or any other kind of 

 bark. The nine eggs were very hard set and one of them 

 addled. Alston returned home with the eggs, and on his 

 way found another nest in a birch in the middle of the 

 fir-wood, which had young ones. The old birds were very 

 bold, feeding them within 6 feet of where we were sitting. 

 He did not disturb this nest. 



I then proceeded to the Pied Flycatchers' nests found 

 by us on the 24th. One of them was built on the top of 

 an old nest, in which was a rotten egg which looked like 

 that of a Nuthatch. In this nest there was no egg laid 

 yet. The other nest contained a single egg — fresh — and 

 was composed of dry grass, lined neatly with a minute 

 kind of root which grows inside decayed birch and other 

 trees. It was situated in a hole in a birch-tree, and I had 

 to chisel for nearly an hour before I got to it. The 3' 

 bird was shot. The species appears to be plentiful here. 

 Two other nests did not yet contain eggs. 



There has not been so much snow melting the last two 

 days, as the weather has been cooler, with occasional 

 showers of rain. 



Alston was not in good form, and was rather bilious, 

 the long fasts and big feeds at night not agreeing with him. 



