54 WILD LIFE AT HOME. 



I stood perfectly still, with my back against a 

 big tree. They had not got far past when they 

 accidentally stumbled upon a blackbird's nest con 

 taining young ones, and were promptly mobbed by 

 its owners, who " spink, spink, spinked " just as 

 loudly and angrily as if a cat had intruded itself 

 upon them and their offspring. 



It is a very pretty sight to see a bird building 

 its nest. I have watched coots dive to the bottom 

 of a pond for aquatic weeds, and, swimming up with 

 a heavy burden, place it upon the raft-like collection 

 already gathered have thrown feathers into the air 

 by handfuls, and watched swallows and martins 

 dexterously catch and carry them off to line their 

 nests with, and the great clumsy solan goose con- 

 structing her rude cradle of dead seaweed ; but 

 I never saw anything so interesting as a hedge- 

 sparrow making her little home of slender twigs, 

 moss, and hair. I watched one last spring for over 

 an hour very early one sunny Sunday morning, 

 She brought wee twigs and dead grass stems at a 

 great rate, and when she had laid them in position 

 upon the edge of her nest from the outside, 

 hopped inside, and gave the structure shape and 

 symmetry by hustling round and round, pressing 

 the materials into position with her breast, and 

 picking little twigs out here and there, and re- 

 placing them in more suitable spots. 



A hedge-sparrow has a peculiar way of entering, 

 her nest. If under observation, of which she is 



