SOME CURIOUS NESTS. 



197 



folk, 



seems to 

 suspect that 

 other animals 

 and birds may be 

 thieves as well ; 

 so she surrounds 

 her nest with a 

 hedge of thorns. 

 Whether she ever 

 pricks herself on 

 them or not, I 

 am unable to say. 



While the little sand martin lines her under- 

 ground nest with the softest feathers she 

 can find, the rude kingfisher forms a couch 

 in her cellar in the bank of spiny fish-bones, 



Edible birds' nests. 



