ARCHITECT AND ARTIFICE 



types of nests, therefore, do not prove to us that the 

 birds copy environment to hide their nests. 



But a wren's nest, which I was shown the other 

 day, was so well masked that it inclined me favour- 

 ably towards the theory that sometimes the wren 

 deliberately conceals its nest by building material 

 that harmonizes with the surroundings. The site 

 was an outhouse wall in a garden. This wall is 

 ivied, but the ivy is brown and withered, and 

 has been cut back severely, so there is hardly any 

 cover. The nest is fastened among some short, 

 clipped stems of ivy which hold a few pale-brown 

 dead ivy leaves. The outside of the nest is made 

 of pale-brown dead ivy leaves picked up, no doubt, 

 just below the site and it is only when you look 

 very close by at the nest you discover, worked into 

 one side, a bit of withering green fern ; this is 

 so slight it does not tell the secret. 



It would make a capital puzzle for anybody not 

 expert in nest-finding. Set the guesser of the 

 puzzle on the garden path, and say, " Find, 

 without moving, a wren's nest within five yards 

 of where you stand, with nothing between you 

 and it. I give you five minutes in which to find 

 it." He would want a second five minutes, and 

 then a third, and in the end would give it up. 

 He might take a minute or two to find the nest, 

 even though you gave him the clue " look for 

 a slight bulge on that wall." One reason why 

 this nest is so wonderfully concealed, though the 

 site is almost bare, lies in its neatness. There is 

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