18 EGOS AND EGG-COLLECTING. 



occurred in the neighbourhood of Skegness, where a pair 

 of Marsh Titmice selected a farmer's letter-box for incuba- 

 tion purposes, and although it was opened twice daily, and 

 the materials with which the birds began to build were 

 several times cleared away, they doggedly persisted in their 

 efforts, and eventually succeeded in making a nest and 

 depositing the usual number of eggs. 



One of the strangest cases of all, and I should think 

 the most remarkable on well authenticated record, recently 

 occurred near Colchester, where a pair of Common Wrens 

 built their nest inside the skeleton of a hooded crow, which 

 had been brought to justice and hung up as a warning to 

 other winged depredators. 



These odd positions and situations are evidently not 

 chosen for purposes of concealment from man, at any rate ; 

 indeed, it is a question whether some of them are not 

 adopted to secure the advantage his presence affords against 

 the incursions of: predatory birds and animals. And, on 

 the other hand, if these seeming departures from instinct 

 be admitted as due to reason, it seems strange that whilst 

 some birds are capable of this, others exhibit what seems 

 to human understanding profound stupidity. I have 

 known birds vainly try to build in positions where it was 

 impossible for a nest to rest, each piece of material falling 

 to the ground, until sufficient had been collected for a great 

 many nests ; yet the bird kept on collecting sticks, moss, 

 and grasses, until probably she was obliged to drop her 

 eggs in the fields. This is not a solitary instance, nor 

 only once attempted, for close observation proved that the 

 same inexplicably vain effort was continued from year to 

 year, but whether by the same birds or not it is of course 

 impossible to say. 



