MAY, 1882. 175 



turned tree root met our view, and struck us as a likely 

 spot for a robin or a wren to build ; so we took the one 

 step necessary to glance under it, and as we stooped our 

 most prominent feature nearly met the point of a red- 

 breast's bill, as it sat solemnly and immovably on its little 

 nest. We remained stooping and looking at it for some 

 time, and at length left without it moving. A fact 

 explained, as we again peeped in an hour afterwards, and 

 found that the poor thing was in the same circumstances 

 as the old women that lived in a shoe. We would never 

 have observed it had the mother not been on the nest ; 

 and, indeed, redbreast's nests are rarely discovered until 

 the demands of the offspring make the place more 

 frequented. 



Nests of all kinds are now more numerous, and we 

 saw other two this week that were as boldly placed close 

 to a frequented path as the nests of the redbreast itself. 

 These two were in trees, against which passers-by were 

 brushing their shoulders daily, and both were so low that 

 a glance aside enabled the snuggery with its speckled 

 contents to be readily noted. The one was that of the 

 large tit (Parus major), the other that of P. cczrulius or 

 smaller tit, and the nests were placed in the hollows made 

 by the bifurcation of the tree stems near the root. P, 

 major was most plucky and determined, and swore at us 

 lustily while we were removing a sample egg, by means 

 of a toddy ladle at the end of a stick. The little blue tit 

 was in a narrower cavity, and we had to substitute an 

 " egg spoon " for the ladle ere obtaining the desired 

 specimen. We stood for some time looking down at the 

 sitting mother in the deeper hole, but the tit is a bold 

 and fearless bird, be it large or small, and although we 

 could see the palpitations of the little bosom the eye 



