150 FIRST APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 



The birds are easy to photograph if you get them at the 

 moment of rest, but if you happen to snap them just as they 

 jerk on there is nothing but a straight streak on the plate ; 

 l-50th of a second being quite useless to arrest the movement. 

 An examination of the bad plates shewed that the bird 

 jerks itself forward by a flexing action of the leg, aided by the 

 tail, as in several cases the tail shewed slight movement, the 

 bird much movement, and yet the feet were quite sharp. The 

 turning movement in entering the nest also shewed on several 

 occasions that practically the whole bird had turned before 

 the feet were moved. (W.P.C.). 

 Sitta caesia (The Nuthatch). 



llth April, E.H.C. observed a bird on the outskirts of Bere 

 Wood, collecting mud from a ditch. It got a lump about one 

 inch long and about J of an inch in diameter and took it into 

 the wood ; we followed for 300 yards and found the bird 

 plastering an old woodpecker's hole, 18 feet up an aspen 

 poplar. 



17th May. A nest was finished in an old woodpecker's 

 hole at Canford, but on the 22nd May the birds had been 

 dispossessed by Picus viridis, which cut out all the mud, 

 did some chipping and then abandoned the hole. Sitta caesia 

 is a dear little bird and most inoffensive, and its attachment 

 to its nest is particularly strong, yet it is as much persecuted 

 by starlings, woodpeckers, and squirrels as any bird we know. 

 (E.H.C. and W.P.C.) 

 Parus ater-ater (The Continental Coal Titmouse). 



In the later part of January two specimens of this bird 

 came into an araucaria on several occasions outside my 

 window at the nursing home in Parkstone, where 1 was confined 

 with appendix trouble ; as my l)ed was within 20 feet of the 

 tree I am satisfied as to identity. (W.P.C.) 



Parus aler-briiannicu* (The British Coal Titmouse). 



22nd May. On this date our nesting box No. 32 at Canford 

 contained a whole brood of young birds. 



24th May. E.H.C. put up his tent to this nest. His notes 

 were as follows. : 



