SOME FEATHERED BUILDERS 41 



would fall on those of the chaffinch, goldfinch, 

 long -tailed tit, and the golden -crested wren. 

 Under certain forced conditions I have seen 

 in their structures deviations from the general 

 type, but these little details do not count. As 

 a rule, each bird selects its building-place, and 

 constructs its nest on the lines that were first 

 laid down for it in Nature's training-school. 



One of the most innocent of feathered 

 builders is the little willow wren, yet it will 

 employ all sorts of wiles and small shifts to 

 lead you away from the immediate vicinity of 

 its nest. Strolling once up a narrow cart- 

 track, closed in on each side by copse growth, 

 a faint cheep just overhead caused me to look 

 up. Then I found that it was a nettle-builder, 

 as the children call it, restlessly flitting from twig 

 to twig, with a small white feather in its bill, 

 that had dropped from a wood-pigeon. Find- 

 ing that it was observed, it at once dropped 

 down in the undergrowth, where we caught 

 sight of it from time to time, creeping about 

 more like a mouse than a bird ; then it flew 

 up into the trees again, still holding its feather. 

 Anxious to know the meaning of these small 

 manoeuvres, I hid up in the tangle. Then I 

 saw the bird dart into the bottom of a bramble- 



