10 SOME BIRDS AND A TOWN GARDEN 
busily and hastily preening her feathers. 
She sat in the still leafless clematis against 
the wall, a cosy spot, the sun shining fully 
on her little body.. She: had evidently den 
her eggs for a while, and took the opportunity 
of hastily performing her toilet. She slipped 
away quickly but quietly along the wall after 
this. I must follow up the cue and see if I 
can find her nest. How fearless town sparrows 
have become. I saw some of their nests the 
other day under a railway bridge, a spot 
certainly in the, best. of shelter: trem vhe 
elements, but they were subjected each time 
the trains passed to a cloud of sulphurous 
smoke and steam, and trains ran each twenty 
minutes on that line! It is rather soon to 
start looking for birds’ nests yet, and to con- 
tinue our Nature notes for this year, but the 
signs given by some of our early building 
little feathered friends tell me we must not 
delay it long, and some birds have even by 
now laid their eggs. It is well for the little 
birds that the great Creator has taught them 
to nest in the spring. For does not this admit 
