PROCREANT CRADLES' 



in 



sandy loam for their own plaster work, of different quality 

 from the viscid brown mud preferred by swallows and martins. 

 The instinct for stopping holes sometimes runs to extra- 

 vagant lengths ; on occasion they will not only fill up the 

 actual opening of their nest-hole to the desired size, but 

 plaster every superficial crevice and chink in the trunk or 

 bough. Like the swallows, they sometimes work a few hairs 

 or feathers into the mass. This plaster work is the most 

 peculiar and important part of their nest-building; but it 

 is distinct from 

 the actual nest 

 This is a heap 

 of soft material 

 packed at the 

 bottom of the 

 hole, like a rather 

 roughly com- 

 pacted tit's nest. 

 Several birds 



, . NUTHATCH 



show a curious 



individuality in their choice of nesting material ; and the 

 special fancy of the nuthatch is for scraps and strips of the 

 soft inner bark of the birch. On this couch inside their queer 

 clay stopper the little nuthatches are nursed in much comfort 

 and safety. 



To some extent the nuthatch is a wood-borer in its 

 nesting operations, but vicariously. Like tits and starlings, 

 and also bats, it often adopts the holes scooped out for their 

 own nest in the previous season by green woodpeckers. 

 For their disregard of opposition, the nesting of the three 

 woodpeckers deserves the prize among British birds. Some- 

 times they dig their hole in decayed trunks, when a nice 

 skill is required rather than strength and endurance ; but 



(l^r^ 



