88 



APRIL. 



sparrows have found a crevice in the eaves, or 

 the roof, or if it be of thatch, have scooped 

 themselves a large hole, and therein made their 

 nests of hay, lined them with feathers, and laid, 

 each pair, five black-spotted eggs. In defect of 

 a good situation in the house, they disdain not 

 to fix their nest, like a wisp of hay in a tree 

 near it. The spotted fly-catcher has found a 

 square hole in the wall, or a branch of a tree 

 trained against it, where its nest and red-spot- 

 ted eggs are deposited. If it be a half-timbered 

 house, it is ten to one but that the red-start 

 has found a hole too, in one of the upright tim- 

 bers, in which its nest and sea-green eggs are 

 deposited ; or the little tomtit has occupied that 

 post. This active little bird, which we see in 

 the shrubbery swinging about at the ends of 

 slender boughs in pursuit of caterpillars, etc. 

 will sometimes become so tenacious of its dwell- 

 ing, that I have known one build within the win- 

 dow-frame of a sitting-room, which, when any 

 of the family knocked on the wood close to its 

 nest, would immediately reply by several smart 

 raps with its bill. This answer was never 

 omitted during the period of incubation by 

 the bird which built there for several succes- 



