24 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



fell from his nest, and hung suspended below it. 

 He was observed for some time making prodigious 

 exertions to escape, but in vain ; and his remains 

 are now to be seen gibbeted at his own door, and 

 fluttering in the wind, whilst the straws of his 

 nest project from the eye-hole above his head." 



The sparrow is not the only bird that builds 

 its nest amid the bustle of human society. An 

 instance is recorded of a pair of spotted-fly- 

 catchers having built on the angle of a lamp-post 

 in one of the streets of Leeds, and there rearing 

 their young. Mr. Jesse, in the Second Part of 

 his " Gleanings," mentions a nest of the same bird 

 which was found on the top of a street-lamp near 

 Portland Place, in London. It had five eggs in it, 

 which had been sat upon. Mr. Yarrell states that 

 he saw a nest of this bird fixed in the ornamental 

 crown on the top of the lamp at the office of 

 Woods & Forests, in Whitehall Place. Mr. Jesse 

 makes mention of a still more singular site of a 

 nest, but belonging to the water- wagtail. This 

 bird took a fancy to one of the workshops of 

 a manufactory at Taunton. " The room was 

 occupied by braziers, and the noise produced by 

 them was loud and incessant. The nest was built 



