APPENDIX B. 



The following instance of the perseverance with which 

 a bird will, at times, cling to the spot selected for a nest in 

 the face of what might be supposed insuperable difficulties 

 is given as told by a careful and patient observer of nature, 

 who has himself succeeded in taming free swallows, and 

 inducing them to feed their nestlings on his lap. 



One is tempted on reading the story to wonder that the 

 sternest of Lady Abbesses, 



" Though vain of her religious sway, 

 Loving to see her nuns obey," 



could have seen the bird complete the round of the nitches 

 of the marble grave, and begin a second round, without 

 relenting. 



" I have a sister who is a nun in the Abbey, 



at . When she was at home she took part in much 



of the Natural History work my brothers and I were 

 engaged in, and she certainly has a good knowledge of our 

 English birds, and is a careful observer. I mention these 

 facts to show you that my witness is one on whom I can 

 thoroughly rely, 



"On Thursday, July Qth, last year (1891), a Missel Thrush 

 built in the Nuns' graveyard. There is a marble grave 

 there with a pent house built over it to save it from the 

 weather. The rafters resting on the " wall-plate " make 

 twelve openings under the eaves, six on each side of the 

 building. 



" In the first of these openings, on the left, the nest was 



