THE TVOOD THRUSH 



and in my conservatory early in June there emerged from it a 

 moth with a wing spread of six and three-quarter inches the 

 widest of the species I ever have seen. A Woodcock was 

 flushed and an hour spent in searching for her nest, when I 

 remembered that my quest was for Bell Birds, so I returned to 

 my original pursuit. 



I had hunted until despairing when there was a brown flash 

 above my head ; a male Bell Bird flew over with a sharp warning 

 chirp ; then I realized I was close his home, so standing still I used 

 my eyes to such good advantage that presently I was looking 

 straight into the big, liquid, startled ones of Mother Bell Bird, 

 as she peered down from an elm thicket close above me. 



Oh, but she was beautiful! even in her plain colours, which 

 after all were not so plain, for her back was a rich reddish brown 

 and her breast snowy white, with long irregular markings of 

 black. My plan had been to locate her that morning and go my 

 way for a day's work elsewhere; but a nest on a dry plate is worth 

 ten in a bush, for birds have hosts of enemies, so you never know 

 with any certainty when you leave a nest one day that it will be 

 safe the following. It could be seen at a glance that there was 

 something most unusual about this nest, for it was bright as the 

 back of the bird that brooded on it; so I hurried to the carriage 

 for my step-ladder to use as a tripod, and a camera. I decided 

 that I would bring a big one. 



I felt that this nest was unique, and s.o it proved. It was 

 the most surprisingly individual piece of bird architecture 

 imaginable. Disdaining corn-husk, straw, and other material 

 almost invariably chosen by their species, this pair of birds, with 

 untold patience and labour, had digged from the ground the roots 

 of red raspberries and nettles and woven them while wet into a 

 deep cup. There was not a particle of lining and very little 

 other foundation: nothing at all in the body of the nest except 



87 



