THE FAERY YEAR 



not an untidy fragment or end about the whole 

 fabric. The entrance is tightly wattled to perfec- 

 tion. It is as though the builder had used a 

 bagful of tiny tools for snipping, pushing, mould- 

 ing, smoothing. If concealment were here not 

 aimed at, it is a singularly happy chance result. 

 Amid the thick green ivy of another wall are 

 one or two nests of wrens. Here the outside 

 material is green moss. But, as there is ample 

 leaf-cover, concealment by assimilation is un- 

 necessary ; I cannot think it was in this case 

 intended. As to green moss, wrens prefer it to 

 any other material, but it is not often though 

 it is sometimes used in places where it does not 

 match its surroundings. 



A lady has written to me to ask "whether 

 the long-tailed titmouse uses lichen for her nest 

 because she considers it ornamental, useful through 

 cohesiveness, or protective through its similarity 

 to the branches on which it is fixed." She gives 

 me an account of a chaffinch's nest in a scarlet 

 May bush in her garden. When the May 

 blossomed, a small piece of red Berlin wool was 

 added by the birds at the only spot where the nest 

 could possibly be seen from below. This little 

 touch of colour effectively masked the nest, which 

 was only discovered when the young were being 

 fed. My correspondent is sure the bright wool 

 was not added till the May blossomed, for, if .it 

 had been, she and others must have noticed it. It 

 is hard to believe that a chaffinch unites with a fine 

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