LAKES AND RIVERS. 



could now be seen. We all shrank from a scramble 

 through the thorns which obscured the nest, for a 

 large branch of hawthorn hung over it. The rope 

 ladder was fixed with some difficulty to one of the 



top branches. Barnes 

 went up, and with his 

 saw cut off the branch 

 that overhung the nest, 

 which gave him a view 

 of a white moving mass 

 through the thorns. He, 

 with considerable diffi- 

 culty and some expendi- 

 ture of time, cut away the 

 smaller branches which 

 almost surrounded him, 

 and was thus enabled 

 to move in the direction 

 of the nest ; forcing away 

 with his walking-stick the 

 crown of thorns which 

 covered it, he soon lowered 

 down to us two young owls 

 of the long-eared species 

 (Strix atus) and two eggs 

 quite fresh. The young 

 birds were covered with 

 down of a sort of dirty-white colour. We returned to 

 the farmhouse, and had our lunch at two o'clock. 

 In a very thick yew close to the house a pair of gold- 

 crests (Regulus flavicapillus) had built, but the nest 

 was so high up in the tree that there was great diffi- 



GOLD-CREST AND NEST. 



