8o WILD LIFE AT HOME. 



During last May we found three bottle-tits' 

 nests in the same hedgerow within a couple of 

 hundred yards of each other. We visited them on 

 several occasions late in the evening, and always 

 found the male birds sharing the cosy little feather- 

 lined nests. 



As soon as they had young ones we went out 

 and fixed up our artificial tree-trunk in front of 

 one of them. When all was ready for action I 

 retired to a distance and watched proceedings 

 through my field-glasses. It was not very long 

 before the female turned up with a number of flies 

 in her bill. She hopped about rather nervously 

 at first, but gradually drawing nearer to her little 

 house of webs and lichen, entered it and stayed 

 there. By-and-by the male came along with a 

 supply of food, which he gave to his consort as 

 she sat covering their family, but whether she in 

 her turn passed it on to the hungry youngsters or 

 riot neither my brother nor I could make out, 

 although we both saw from our respective quarters 

 the supplies repeatedly passed in. 



After a number of plates had been exposed in 

 a light that was far too poor to make us sanguine 

 about the results, the photographer signalled to 

 me that he wished to be released. Upon walking 

 up, I put my finger into the nest and the tit sat 

 perfectly still until I withdrew it, when she came 

 out in the most unconcerned fashion and began to 

 hop about amongst the branches of a tree overhead. 



