42 C.C. NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



eaves of houses and one was built in a small cherry tree growing be- 

 tween the windows of a house and not more than seven feet from the 

 ground. At Witcomb last year he saw two swallows' nests side by 

 side on a coach-house door, which swung with the door every time it 

 was opened or shut, the birds sitting all the time. One of the nests 

 eventually hatched off. 



In a workshop in Derbyshire there was a wall box in which was a 

 bearing for shafting built in the wall with a wheel close to the wall 

 outside. A fly-catcher built for two years in this recess and it could 

 only get in or out when the wheel was not revolving but it would sit 

 there with all the noise and the wheel going round and did not 

 appear to mind a bit. 



Other curious things which he had noticed were a redstart and a 

 willow warbler which had laid in the same nest, a golden-crested wren's 

 nest in a holly bush, five blackbirds' nests in a hayrick in a shed, the 

 five nests being all woven together and there were eggs in three of 

 them. 



It is a very great mistake if you find a nest of which you have 

 any doubt to take the eggs without first seeing the bird and making 

 notes about her and the nest. 



Suppose a bird is sitting and you put her off unseen, if you go 

 away and return in a few minutes quietly you will probably find she 

 is on the nest and then you can have a good look at her. This is of 

 the first importance in the case of birds that are very much alike in 

 their eggs and nests. For instance it is very often impossible to say 

 whether certain eggs are blackcaps' or garden warblers', but when you 

 see the birds you can tell in a moment, for the cock blackcap has a 

 black cap and the hen a reddish one, while the garden warbler has 

 none at all. 



The chiffchaff and willow warblers, too, are very confusing as they 

 both build the same nests and willow warblers' eggs vary so very much 

 both as to shape and markings. But you may take it as a rule that 

 willow warblers' nests are on the ground, often in so deep a recess 

 that they are very difficult to find, while a chiffchaff 's is always built 

 off the ground, in a briar or some other bush. If you are quiet and 

 quick you may often catch the bird on the nest with your hand and 

 have a good look at her before letting her go, she does not seem to 

 forsake the nest in consequence. Such an inspection of the bird will 

 tell you at once which of the two it is, for a chiffchaff has black legs 

 while a willow warbler has greenish brown ones. The chiffchaff is the 

 first warbler to come and the last to go. 





