THE NEST IN THE OLD OAK 99 



did so, the robber Crows took the eggs 

 as soon as they were laid. The Wren, 

 however, had a nest in a bush immediately 

 under the oak ; but the Wren is such a 

 tiny bird, and it was hardly noticed by 

 the Crows, for the nest made of dead 

 leaves was cunningly hidden in the lower 

 part of the bush, and I doubt very much, 

 if the Crows had looked right at the nest, 

 whether they would have recognized it as 

 such. A pair of Blackbirds, which had 

 not had any experience of nest building 

 before, made their home in a very 

 open part of the hedge not far away, 

 and the male bird actually had the 

 impudence to sit in the Crows' oak and 

 sing. He did this each evening, and it 

 was not until the nest contained five 

 eggs that he realized that the two large 

 birds above him were robbers. It was 

 about nine o'clock in the morning, when 

 he was still singing, that his mate heard 

 a great noise in the hedge by her side, 



