Willow-Warbler and Chiff-Chaff. 49 



must be many nests ; but these we are not likely 

 to find except by accident, so beautifully are they 

 concealed by their grassy roofs. Through the 

 hole in the upper part of the side you see tiny 

 eggs, speckled with reddish brown, lying on a 

 warm bedding of soft feathers ; one of these was 

 built last May in the very middle of the lawn of 

 the Parsonage-house at Ferry- Hincksey, and two 

 others of exactly the same build, one a Chiff- 

 chaffs, were but a little way outside the garden- 

 gate, and had escaped the sharp eyes of the 

 village boys when I last heard of them. Though 

 from being on the ground they probably escape 

 the notice of Magpies and Jackdaws and other 

 egg-devouring birds, these eggs and the young 

 that follow must often fall a prey to stoats and 

 weasels, rats and hedgehogs. That such creatures 

 are not entirely absent from the neighbourhood of 

 the Parks, I can myself bear witness, having seen 

 one morning two fine stoats in deadly combat for 

 some object of prey which I could not discern, 

 as I was divided from them by the river. The 

 piping squeaks they uttered were so vehement and 



loud, that at the first moment I mistook them for 



E 



