APRIL. 87 



profusion of spangles of silvery lichen on dark- 

 green moss. 



Boys are completely absorbed by their admi- 

 ration of birds' nests. In vain do parents scold 

 about torn clothes, scratched hands, shoes spoil- 

 ed with dew ; every field and wood is traversed, 

 every bush explored ; no tree is too high, no 

 rock too dangerous to climb ; sticks split at the 

 end, are thrust into every hollow in wall, eaves, 

 or tree- trunk, to twist out the hidden nest ; 

 and I myself recollect being held by the heels 

 over an old coal-pit sixty yards deep to reach 

 a blackbird's nest built in a hole two or three 

 feet below the surface of the ground. 



But it is not boys merely who are struck 

 with the beauty of birds'-nests and eggs, and 

 with the picturesque situations in which they 

 are placed; there are few people of taste re- 

 siding in the country who do not see them 

 with a lively pleasure. Let us take a survey of 

 these interesting objects. Let us suppose that 

 we are in an old farm-house. The chimney is 

 inhabited by the swallow, and the eaves by the 

 martin, who have there fixed their mud nests, 

 lined them with feathers, and laid in them their 

 five or six white eggs spotted with red. The 



