AND OTHER BIRDS 125 



and even small epiph}i:ic shrubs. Beneath, 

 however, it was still sound, and, where the 

 moulder had fallen off in dust, yet contained a 

 sufficiency of dry wood for the modest wants of 

 the Rifleman. In this hard wood there was a 

 narrow fissure in one part roughly circular, and 

 where probably a small knot had fallen away. 

 The little draughty clefts on either side of it 

 had been blocked with building material, and 

 the rough edges of the knot hole itself, enwrapped 

 with cobwebs and moss. This fuimel-like 

 entrance indeed was so bound up with silky 

 mesh and so minute as not a little to resemble 

 fhe round hole built by spiders, from which 

 they issue stealing upon their prey. It was only 

 by stooping and looking upwards in a cruel 

 breakneck attitude that the webby keyhole could 

 be noticed, and the breast and head of the fore- 

 most chick seen within. Whilst feeding the 

 young, the parent bird must have clung to the 

 rough surface of the wood, as a fly clings to the 

 ceiling. The nestlings were supplied with moth, 

 caterpillars, and insects of many kinds. These 

 were collected at no great elevation, for although 

 at certain seasons the Rifleman mounts very 

 high in search of food, the flight-paths of the pair 

 now rearing their brood rarely exceeded a height 

 of 20 or 30 feet. The hen was by far the bolder 

 bird, and it was only whilst we were some little 

 distance away that the cock would nerve himself 

 to carry in supplies. AVhen approaching with 

 food, the birds flew in short stages from shrub 

 to shrub, 'zee, zee, zeeing,' as they came on. The 

 halting place occupied immediately prior to the 

 plunge beneath the bole, — where the birds 

 always for a moment paused, though never for 



