BlKDS. 69 



had my face within twelve inches of her, and could 

 see the white feathers of her face all soiled and 

 dirty by coming in contact with the mould when 

 catching worms. I begged the sparing of her life 

 of more than one man who was desirous of seeing 

 her behind a glass-case; and I hope, but I fear 

 vainly, that she will live to build more nests and 

 yield interesting facts to other students of Nature. 



This, so far as I could ascertain, was the end 

 of the mischief done by the cats, and I believe it 

 was all perpetrated by the same animal a dissi- 

 pated-looking brown Thomas, which I saw one day 

 on the roof of a high barn, trying, but fortunately 

 without success, to rake out some young starlings 

 from their nest under the tiles. 



A heavy percentage of the other birds named 

 as being found breeding within five hundred yards 

 of a Greater London farmhouse were robbed by 

 carrion-crows and boys. I was always taught in 

 my young days, on well-kept Yorkshire grouse- 

 moors, to believe that crows were very shy birds ; 

 but have since discovered that that depends very 

 much upon the way their numbers are kept down 

 by game-preserving. A friend of mine not long 

 ago started out one fine spring morning from High 

 Barnet across the fields, and from there to Shenley 

 took no less than eighteen clutches of eggs belong- 

 ing to this species. Last May a pair succeeded in 

 building a nest, rearing and actually carrying off 

 a brood from an orchard near to Elstree. 



