io6 



THE SWAN AND HER CREW. 



They did so, and to their surprise a torn-tit flew out, and 

 upon closer inspection they found its nest in one of the boots, 

 and in the nest twelve tiny white eggs. 



" These are master's marsh-boots, but when he found that 

 the birds had begun to build in them, he gave orders that no 

 one was to touch them until the birds had hatched off their 

 young ones/' 



Tom-tits have a knack of building their nests in strange 

 places. Inside a pillar letter-box, where letters were being tossed 



TOM -TIT AND EGG, 



every day ; in a hole in a door-post, which was closed when 

 the door was shut, so that the birds were shut up during the 

 night ; in the pocket of a gardener's coat hanging on a nail 

 Such are the places in which master torn-tit sometimes builds 

 his nest. Even more curious, however, was a nest I read of 

 which was built by a fly-catcher in the spring of a bell, which 

 vibrated twenty times a day when the bell was rung. 



When they reached the wood, Dick's attention was attracted 



