BLACKBIRDS, NIGHTINGALES, ETC. 327 



the commencement, so thoroughly as I should have 

 liked to have done, yet I have seen it to a certain 

 extent, and I will now quote from the notes which 

 I took down on one such occasion : 



''May 2^th. — At the pit about 7.15 A.M. A great 

 number of birds are working, and there is not now 

 the same regularity in their movements — all coming 

 to the holes and darting away together at intervals — 

 as was the case, for a time, at least, when I first 

 watched them. Though so late, several birds are 

 but just commencing to make their holes, and to 

 watch these is most interesting. Two plans seem 

 to be employed. In the first, the bird constantly 

 flutters its wings, whilst, with its feet, it at the same 

 time clings to and scratches the face of the cliff. 

 Thus it partly hovers in the air, and partly keeps 

 itself in position with its feet, but more with the tail 

 which is fanned out and pressed in against the cliff, 

 like a woodpecker's against the trunk of the tree it 

 is on. The second way is more curious. The wings, 

 here, are partly extended, but, instead of being fluttered, 

 they are pressed close against the sandy wall. Moving 

 about over this, they seem to feel for every little 

 inequality into which they can wedge themselves, 

 and this the bird does, also, with his breast and the 

 most available part of his body, the tail being fanned 

 and pressed to the cliff, whilst the feet all the while 

 are scratching vigorously. In this way a bird will 

 sometimes crawl, or rather wedge itself, about, over 

 the pit's face (which, though it may be perpendicular, 

 or almost so, is yet full of roughnesses and inequalities), 

 appearing to seek either the most yielding surface to 

 scratch, or the best place to get fixed into whilst 



