AN ARCADIAN CALENDAR 



saucer-shaped depression, cunningly fashioned in the 

 bank. The doormat may serve some obscure object of 

 camouflage. 



ROBINS are credited with a passion for nesting in old 

 kettles, yet it is a triumph to find a kettle- 

 When nest, even when there is a good crop of 



Robins kettles in a wood near cottages. Though so 

 Nest friendly to man, Robin is always as willing 



to nest in a solitary haunt as in a garden 

 outhouse. His favourite site is a bank, but sometimes he 

 nests on the floor of a wood, risking the perils of vermin. 

 It is engaging to find nests within reach of craftsmen at 

 work. Sir William Jardine, writing about 1839, re- 

 marked on the intense devotion of the birds to the old- 

 fashioned saw-pit, which in Spring would always 

 harbour nesting redbreasts, sitting within a yard of 

 toiling sawyers. 



IN the attribute of friendliness to man, the marsh-tit 

 comes next to the robin: no wild bird is 

 A more easily won by kindness. In its 



Fearless Quakerish garb, with a black cap for sole 

 Titmouse ornament, it looks like a poor relation of 

 the swaggering great tit, in his primrose 

 vest slashed with purple. But in its friendliness the 

 marsh-tit is the most charming of the family. The 

 moment it discovers an hospitable board spread in a 

 garden, it makes itself at home. And it is easily lured 

 into houses, will hop without the least fear about 

 tables, and will perch on heads and shoulders, even on 

 the pen of a quiet writer. 



