96 APRIL. 



brave roof and defence against rain for them. In 

 windy weather, however, the rook-nests are fre- 

 quently blown down; and the sparrows, in great 

 numbers, share their fate. 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- 

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

 house, it is ten to one but that the redstart has found 

 a hole too, in one of the upright timbers, in which 

 its nest and sea-green eggs are deposited ; or the 

 little tomtit has occupied that post. This active 

 s 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 dwelling, that I have known one build within 

 the window-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 successive years. This, and most 

 other birds which build about the habitations of men, 

 very commonly depart from that regularity of instinct 

 which prompts them to employ only material of a 

 certain kind in their nests, and gather up pieces of 

 cotton, shreds of cloth, and even needles and thread, 

 which have been found worked up into these curious 

 motley fabrics. I have, indeed, a blackbird's nest 

 which I found in the meadows very near Notting- 

 ham. It was built in a hedge just by a water-course, 

 from which a great quantity of flags had been cut ; 



