60 LAKES AND RIVERS. 



the hand and let fly. There were six eggs. From 

 Barnes's commanding situation he looked down 

 upon a swift's (Cypselus apus) nest under the tiles of 

 the house. This had been made the year before, but 

 the entrance had been stopped up in accordance with 

 some superstition of the mistress of the house. As 

 I had never before seen a swift's nest, I got out of 

 the garret window on the roof, and lifting two of the 

 tiles, found it placed in a sort of hollow where a 

 rafter had rotted away. There the skeleton of the 

 bird lay, picked by ants, and two eggs which exploded 

 at the touch. The nest was made of some glutinous 

 material, but the rain had spoilt it. 



The landlord's brother was a miller, who lived a 

 few miles off. He was very fond of birds, and hear- 

 ing that we were on an ornithological excursion, he 

 drove us to his house, around which many species 

 bred. -He took us to a kingfisher's (Alcedo ispida) 

 nest, the second of the year ; but it was not formed 

 of fish-bones, as is sometimes the case. It contained 

 but one egg. The miller also showed us a nuthatch's 

 (Sitta Europczus) nest in a fir-tree, which unfortunately 

 was deserted ; but he good-naturedly gave us four 

 eggs taken from the same hole the year before. The 

 nest was made of the inner bark of the silver birch, a 

 rich treat to see, as it had been all stripped off by the 

 bird. Our conductor having retired from business, 

 had converted his mill-pond into a gathering-place 

 for water-fowl. It extended to an eighth of an acre, 

 and was surrounded by a thick copse. He had cut 

 a canal round a portion of the copse, which made a 

 secluded island, on which he had placed a bower, 



