64 Baby Birds at Home 



be attracted to the garden by hanging out a 

 meat bone, a coco-nut divided into two, or the 

 kernels of Barcelona nuts. It is a strong, 

 active, fearless bird, with a call note some- 

 thing like that of the chaffinch, " pink, pink." 

 In the springtime this is varied by another, 

 highly suggestive of the sounds made by 

 the process of sharpening a saw with a file. 



The nest is built in holes in trees, old 

 walls, underneath plant pots standing upside 

 down in gardens, and occasionally in the old 

 home of a crow, magpie, or even that of a 

 blackbird. The writer has on two occasions 

 found a Great Tit sitting on a clutch of eggs 

 laid in the old home of the last mentioned 

 bird, which had been lined with rabbits' 

 down. It is made of dry grass, moss, hair, 

 wool, and feathers, and two broods are some- 

 times reared in the same structure in a 

 season. 



The eggs are white spotted and freckled 

 with pale red marks, and, as a rule, number 

 seven or eight, although as many as twelve 

 may upon occasion be found. 



The chicks are fed by both parent birds, 

 and a few days before fledging become very 

 noisy in their clamourings for food. 



