EARLY NESTS n 



winter through, with their red breasts and bold ways ; but it 

 needs a little more observation to see how faithfully the 

 dusky little hedge-sparrow clings to his own modest round. 

 Both birds are among the earliest nesting species, the robin 

 being a little the earlier of the two. The robin's nest is a 

 nightingale's nest clipped at the edges to make it fit into a 

 hole. The two birds are closely related, and the plumage 

 of their spotted young shows their cousinhood very clearly. 

 The robin's nest is packed together from loose leaves, and 

 lined with hair, just like the nightingale's ; but the leafy 

 foundation is cut short where the nest fits close to the bank 

 or wall, and spreads down the slope in a sort of smooth stair- 

 case or ramp. By the time that the young are growing big it 

 is often worn smooth by the old birds alighting at the nest ; 

 and from an early stage of building it is easy for a practised 

 eye to pick out robins' nests in walking along a lane by this 

 characteristic apron of leaves. Hedge-sparrows usually 

 build among bushes and brambles, and need a nest warmly 

 framed on all sides. It is often built within a few yards of 

 the previous season's nest, now sunk into a discoloured 

 lump, and is built of a new crop of the same materials — 

 vivid green moss of the bygone winter's growth, and last 

 autumn's garden rubbish and gale-strewn elm twigs. 



The difference in the date of the first thrushes' and 

 blackbirds' nests in the fields and in the garden is often 

 surprising. In an average season few nests in the lanes and 

 hedgerows have eggs by the end of March, though there 

 are many in various stages of preparation ; but in a shel- 

 tered garden it is not at all uncommon for young song- 

 thrushes to leave the nest before the end of the month. As 

 they remain in the nest about a fortnight, and the eggs take 

 twelve or thirteen days to hatch, this means that the first 

 egg was laid about the last day of February. Blackbirds 



