PERCHING BIRDS. 149 
having nothing better to do during the incubation of the 
female, keeps his hand—I beg pardon, his bill—in 
practice by constructing “cock nests!” This idea, 
however, seems to me to be not very probable. A 
likelier cause, perhaps, is that the wren may be more 
fastidious than other birds, and suffers itself to be 
affected by very slight causes of disturbance, and so after 
a nest has been partially coustructed it deserts it and 
commences another, and this several times in succession. 
This, I think, is far more probable than the erection of 
“cock nests” by the male. Mr. Neville Wood says that 
the wren “ often builds itself a dwelling in autumn, and 
lodges in it on.cold nights.” Mr. Weir states the same, 
and both are thus quoted by Macgillivray, who is of the 
like opinion. The nests I found, as mentioned above, 
were in spring, and were recent erections; and though 
it may have a habit of erecting nests for winter roosting 
places, yet I scarcely think these would be commenced 
so early in the year. 
I am pleased to be able to record a single instance of 
the Hoopoe (Upupa epops) visiting our district. A 
male in fine plumage was shot on the forest a few miles 
north of Ollerton, but I know of no other occurrence of 
this rare and handsome bird. 
The pretty and chastely-coloured Nuthatch (Sitta 
Europea), though it is rather locally distributed in 
England, is by no means rare with us ; indeed, in some 
places it is plentiful. The large kitchen gardens at 
Thoresby, which stand in the midst of the park, are a 
very favourite haunt, the attraction being a long row of 
large and aged nut trees which skirts the southern side. 
There I have often watched their busy operations in 
nutting time. The nuts are of various kinds; the 
