SOME FEATHERED BUILDERS 25 



old un 'ill pisen the lot on 'em." And his 

 sisters chimed in with " Sartin sure she will." 



The boy swarmed up like a cat ; but he 

 swarmed down again with a long face, for they 

 were not fit to take. When I reached home 

 next day, there was the nest on one of the 

 shelves, and I was told that the old birds had 

 left the orchard. 



Scientists try to explain in the most lucid 

 manner some of Nature's mysteries, but all is 

 by no means clear as yet. 



How the hawfinch manages to construct its 

 platform of twigs in a tree or trees, as the case 

 may be, in a well-stocked fruit and vegetable 

 garden, without being discovered, is a puzzle. 

 Some of the nests have fair hollows certainly, 

 others are only twig platforms with a depression 

 in the centre. Well-built nests of this feathered 

 piece of suspicion may be seen at times, but 

 they are, I think, exceptions to his general rule. 



The astute bird, whose movement at times 

 can only be compared to that of a stone thrown 

 by a strong arm, is watched for at certain sea- 

 sons more than any other bird that I am 

 acquainted with, and to little purpose so far as 

 the old birds are concerned. Directly a fine 

 lot of table peas begin to fill out, these birds 



