SOME FEATHERED BUILDERS 27 



to be by this time that the peregrine captures 

 the kestrel and eats him, in the same fashion 

 that he would a dove. Yet the kestrel is as true 

 a falcon as himself. 



Crows' nests have been given as the favourite 

 foundations for hawks to build on ; and so far 

 as a compact piece of bird architecture is con- 

 cerned, nothing could be better. Now, a few 

 instances of deserted crows' riests being used 

 by sparrow-hawks were well known to me in 

 the years 1850 and 1852 ; not in Surrey, but 

 in the wildest and most thickly wooded parts 

 of Sussex, where the raven and the carrion- 

 crow could be found nesting in those years. 



No bird builds its nest with rotten twigs. 

 If they are used in its construction, they are 

 wrenched, or fairly bitten off just as the sap 

 has risen to the topmost twigs. Being pliable, 

 the bird can fit and lace in the living twigs and 

 small branches, which can be bent in all direc- 

 tions with the greatest ease. When placed in 

 position, laced and interlaced, the twigs gradu- 

 ally contract as they dry, forming a firm bit of 

 basket-work that will last for years. 



The feathered builders certainly lose their 

 tempers at times ; but if all goes well, nothing 

 but complacent notes are heard. If a long 



