LECTURES. 43 



You will find more nests by keeping a look-out for the birds and 

 watching their ways than by looking for the nests themselves and you 

 can generally tell by the actions of the bird whether she has a nest 

 near by or not. Story books tell pretty tales of the cock bird singing 

 to his mate as she sits on the eggs. As a matter of fact in most cases 

 the cock sings very little after the nest is begun and stops entirely 

 when the sitting stage arrives. Moreover birds as a rule do not sing 

 near the nest or where the nest is going to be. 



During the sitting season the cock's chief business is to keep 

 watch but it is through this very watchfulness that you can often find 

 the nest. Take the case of wheatears, you can spend a long time 

 in watching them for they are as artful as any bird and the only way 

 to find their nest is by watching, unless, of course, you just chance to 

 find one by pure luck. Leckhampton Hill is a good place to watch 

 them for between Charlton Common and the Devil's Chimney there 

 are always a dozen or more nests. Suppose you catch sight of one 

 sitting on a stone, he will take no notice of you until you get to where he 

 considers to be dangerously near his nest when he will fly off, sound his 

 alarm note and in a few seconds you will see the hen, but to see exactly 

 where she came from is quite another story. But you will have a 

 rough idea, to within twenty yards or so, as to where the nest is. The 

 next thing to do is to hide and watch, but you will find there is no 

 hiding from a wheatear. If you lie up behind a bank or stone, the 

 wheatear promptly gets on to another stone higher up and watches you 

 in his turn, but if you keep still for about a quarter-of-an-hour he will 

 fly down and join the hen and they will run about and feed, or pre- 

 tend to feed. Presently, if all is quiet, the hen will run under a stone 

 or something else and stop there and you think that you have won 

 the game, but if you are drawn from your shelter you will find you are 

 hoaxed, so you will have to hide again and go through the whole 

 performance once more, and with a greater supply of patience you 

 will be this time rewarded by seeing her go to the nest under some 

 loose stones or in a rabbit burrow. 



It appears to be a great trick of the smaller birds when you are 

 at their nest to pretend to feed or to carry building materials about 

 in their mouths as if they were just beginning to make a nest and 

 and consequently any idea of yours that they already had one must 

 be quite absurd and so you had better give up hunting for one and 

 go away. All birds if you take away all their eggs will sit on their 

 nest for an hour or more before they leave it. 



