SOME FEATHERED BUILDERS 23 



miles to walk home after seeing that nest, the 

 road seemed short for once ; for I felt com- 

 pletely thrown on my beam ends, in fact, 

 ornithologically demoralised : all my theories 

 were here contradicted. Old orchards and 

 gardens were near, and old commons ; but no, 

 the bird had thought fit to place its nest in a 

 sprig of green broom, where it looked as con- 

 spicuous as any nest could look ; in fact, two 

 or three sheets of tissue-paper tightly crumpled 

 up in the hand and placed in green twigs would 

 give you a good idea of the little structure. 



Once for one whole week I passed by a fly- 

 catcher's nest on ,a level with my face, without 

 knowing it : all that I had seen was a cobweb 

 over a crack in the wall. It never would have 

 been noticed, if the bird had not brushed my 

 face accidentally, as she just left her nest when 

 I was passing. As I stood looking at it, a 

 very old-fashioned youngster who was about 

 marched up and said 



" Well, wat are ye gunnin' (looking) at now ; 

 it's on'y one o' them ere gnat-ketchers' nests ; 

 doan't you touch that 'ere spider's film, what 

 she's hung up there ; leastways not if ye waunts 

 tu look at them 'ere young uns, fur if ye do, 

 she'll pisen the lot on 'em, I knows." 



