CERTHIAD^. 51 



mud until he makes it of the requisite size. Dead 

 leaves, moss, and suchlike substances, are the usual 

 materials with which the nest is lined ; but some- 

 times very different articles are employed for that 

 purpose. One of these bird's nests was taken about 

 ten years ago by an officer of one of the regiments 

 stationed at Windsor, who discovered it carefully 

 hidden in the hole of an old tree in a wood near 

 Eton : this nest was entirely composed of bits of 

 Turkey carpet which the birds had collected from a 

 place not far off where the process of carpet-beating 

 used daily to go on. 



One of these birds was caught in a net-trap placed 

 on the ground in a small garden at Eton, in November 

 1867. This specimen was given to me, and I kept it 

 alive in a cage for three weeks, feeding it wholly 

 upon nuts ; and the dexterity with which it would 

 crack the hard kernels with a single blow of its strong 

 and formidable bill, was quite surprising. It would 

 fly round and round its prison with great rapidity, and 

 was very active during the night, when its tapping 

 might often be heard ; and the person who took care 

 of it for me told me that its tapping occasionally 

 bore a wonderful resemblance to a knock at the 

 door — so much so, indeed, as to deceive him more 

 than once. 



In Black Park, near Langley, a curious variety of 

 this bird was shot in 1862, and was taken to Mr. 

 Ferryman, of Datchet, where I had an opportunity of 



E 2 



