90 MY LIFE AS A NATURALIST 



eggs ? In 1914 four nesting boxes came under my notice at 

 Letchworth which contained fifty-three young Blue Tits, and, 

 when one adds the eight parent birds, we get a full total of sixty- 

 one birds concerned with four nests, or an average of fifteen 

 birds per nest. I have known the Long-tailed Tit to have a 

 clutch of sixteen eggs, and, when one remembers the arched-iii 

 nest, with a small hole and interior, it is astonishing how such a 

 large family can be reared in comfort, and sufficient food obtained 

 by two small parent birds to keep sixteen hungry babies going. 

 Why such large families should be reared by. this species, unless 

 it be its fondness for travelling about the countryside in little 

 troops during Autumn and Winter, so that blood relationship 

 may keep them together, is to me somewhat of a puzzle. Why, 

 too, should so much labour be expended by this species in pro- 

 ducing such a wonderful nest ? Surely the making of such a 

 homestead, and the rearing of such a large family, means that 

 this is the hardest-worked bird on the British list. We speak 

 glibly of the nest being the finest example of avine architecture 

 we possess, but I fair to see why such immense care should be 

 taken in its construction, the collection of material alone lichen, 

 moss, wool, spiders' webs, feathers, etc. representing thousands 

 of separate journeys. There I must leave the problem in the 

 hope that some light will be thrown upon it. 



The Family succeeding the Tits contains the Laniidce, or 

 Shrikes, and I wish simply to ask here whether it is a fact that 

 our Summer visitor, the Ked-backed Shrike (Lanius collurio), 

 is such a butcher bird as he is represented to be, and whether- it 

 is a common habit of this species, as we have for long been told, 

 to catch its victims, impale them on thorns, and form a sort of 

 larder ? During the whole of my country wanderings I have 

 only discovered one such larder. Are they of common 

 occurrence ? 



The Family Sylviidce, or Warblers, contains some of our finest 

 song birds, and a few brief notes concerning certain species may 

 be set out. The Greater Whitethroat (Sylvia corn/munis] is a 

 bold, fearless bird compared with its shy, retiring cousin the 

 Lesser Whitethroat (Sylvia curruca). The former comes out 

 into the open to sing its vehement, scratchy song, appearing in 

 the air in a state of suspended animation, whereas the latter 

 utters its little-varied and bell-like notes more often than not 

 unseen, deftly hiding, or skulking, within some safe retreat. Yet 

 its voice is one of the most constant among our Summer wood- 



