whin-bush, generally not very far from the ground, but sometimes quite high 

 up ; one nest was shown me in Fife, in the fork of an elm full thirty feet 

 from the ground. I found another in Perthshire on the branch of a spruce 

 fir, which must have been fully forty feet from the ground. 



The nest is somewhat oval, like that of the Common Wren, the entrance to 

 it being by a hole in the side near the top. It is built of moss and lichens, 

 sewed or woven together with horse-hair and cobwebs, and lined with a pro- 

 fusion of feathers, hairs, and tiny bits of rabbit-fur. On one occasion I was 

 standing within a few feet of a nest in the fork of an oak tree, watching the 

 birds, and was quite surprised to see the amount of trouble they bestowed on 

 the construction of it. One of the little birds arrived with a feather, and 

 disappeared with it into the half-finished nest, the other bird remained sitting 

 on the outside of the nest; the bird inside seemed to be very busy, as the 

 side of the nest heaved convulsively every now and then. Suddenly the one 

 outside seized something which had been thrust through the wall of the nest, 

 and pulled through about half of the feather, which it proceeded to weave into 

 the outside of the nest. I saw this operation repeated many times ; sometimes 

 a horse-hair was substituted for the feather, and in that case the weaving 

 took much longer, and was more intricate. The finishing touch to the nest 

 consisted in covering the entire outside of it with tiny bits of bright green 

 moss and silvery-white lichens, which were fastened and woven on to it with 

 cobwebs, until the whole nest was almost indistinguishable from the tree itself. 

 I noticed that the little bird always flew to some distance for the moss and 

 lichens, and never took any from the tree in which the nest was, though it 

 was entirely covered with the same kind of moss and lichen that they were 

 using. 



Some of the most beautiful nests I have ever seen have been placed in 

 whin-bushes, and the lovely contrast made by the dark green spikes, bright 

 yellow blossoms, and silver-white lichens on the nest, quite defies description. 

 The nest takes a long time to complete. I have known a pair to work at 

 their nest for nearly three weeks before it was ready for the first egg. As a 

 rule, eggs are not laid before the end of April, and after the female has begun 

 to sit she is fed most assiduously by the male, who brings the food to the 

 nest and feeds her through the hole. Their food consists almost entirely of 

 insects, chiefly small flies, gnats, and tiny beetles. I have seen one chase and 

 successfully capture a large white butterfly, with which it retired to a twig, 

 devouring the body and rejecting the wings, which it allowed to flutter to 

 the ground like scraps of paper. 



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