SOME ROUGH NOTES 245 



built in a box close to a house, but this must be 

 regarded as very exceptional. We know of one 

 magnificent wood in the heart of Wales where 

 perhaps a dozen pairs of this elegant species nest 

 annually ; and this same wood (composed chiefly of 

 oaks) boasts a Heronry and a pair of Buzzards, as 

 well as the following scarcer species : Brown Owl, 

 Sparrow-hawk, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Jay, all three 

 sorts of Woodpeckers and Wood Wrens, as well as all 

 the commoner kinds of wood-haunting birds. We 

 have our suspicions, too, that the beautiful Hobby 

 Hawk nests there as well ; and this fact we hope to 

 verify during the coming summer. 



The Brown Owls in this wood, perhaps for want of 

 hollow trees, nestle in the Crow's old homes ; and we 

 have mentioned finding an egg of this species in the 

 once home of a Buzzard (vide Chapter VH.). 



A word now on " generalising." This is, as a rule, 

 an unsafe proceeding, beset with many pitfalls ; and 

 in any case a man ought to have had many years 

 careful study of a species before he does so at all. 

 And yet how many, after perhaps finding a couple of 

 nests belonging to some species or another, begin at 

 once to use the word " always " when writing about 

 it. Whenever, then, we have used the word " always " 

 in these pages it will be understood that it only 

 applies to personal observation, and is in no way 

 meant for a generalisation, though we do not believe 

 that a Kestrel ever made a nest for itself, or a Sparrow- 

 hawk anything but the contrary. And v/hen the 

 eggs of this last-named species are recorded as having 

 been found in Crow's or Magpie's deserted homes, 



