THE BUILDERS 



47 



and only the evergreen fern-fronds curving from the soft 

 touchwood yet wear the colour of spring. 



Once April is fairly begun, the nests of the resident species 

 — not only of the resident individuals of those species — 

 begin to multiply very quickly. Faster than the expanding 

 leaves, green wisps of moss appear among the thorn and 

 hazel boughs, and hint where a bird's home may soon be 



MOORHEN'S NEST 



established. These are hints, and not sure indications ; for 

 most birds are easily deterred by disturbance, or bad weather, 

 or sometimes apparently by mere waywardness, and may 

 abandon the nest in the early stages of building. Some 

 kinds of bird, such as the wren and chaffinch and plover, and 

 the blackcap a few weeks later, seem to delight in tracing 

 half a dozen houses in outline before completing one. In 

 the case of the plover and wren, there is a peculiarity about 

 these unfinished nests which cannot be explained by any of 

 the causes just mentioned. The shallow scrapes of the 

 plover and the unfinished mossy shells of wrens' nests are 



