sieepr HOLLOW 47 



him his name, in which start is the A.S. steort a tail. 

 He has left the tree to join his mate a much plainer 

 bird than himself, who is busy on the ground. For a 

 minute or two they fly round and round, uttering soft 

 and tender notes as they circle about each other in the 

 air. Then the more practical hen, on nest-building 

 intent, gathering up the grass she had dropped at the 

 approach of her lord and master, flies off to the ruin, 

 followed a moment later by her handsome mate. In 

 some snug crevice of the wall will be laid the bright 

 blue eggs, to be hatched in course of time into a family 

 of spotted nestlings, as unlike their parents as it is well 

 possible for birds to be. 



In a chink in one of the outbuildings a coal-tit built 

 for many seasons her snugly hidden nest. Just above, 

 the flycatcher loves to frame her cradle in the twining 

 ivy-stems, and in the green canopy still higher the black- 

 bird fancies her retreat unseen. Five-and-twenty years 

 at least a wren has built her nest in this crevice in the 

 old barn wall, matching with patient care the dry leaves 

 of the fabric with the colours of the ancient masonry. 

 As surely, too, some curious naturalist or careless school- 

 boy has touched the structure with incautious hand, and 

 every year the little architect has sought safety other- 

 where. 



But all the while, above the notes of all the other 

 birds, breaking the half-silence when the rest are still, 

 sounds without pause the cuckoo's cry. And now the 

 sound comes nearer, drifting through the green mist of 

 trees far up the valley, though the bird is still unseen. 



