BIRDS AS ARCHITECTS 29 



every conceivable habitation for his by building first a nest that is obvious 



honeymoon, sometimes spreading a to any small boy, then a second that 



bed in an old kettle, sometimes nesting no hungry cat can possibly miss, then 



in a discarded tit's hole, sometimes a third which may escape with average 



actually taking the trouble to lay luck. The tit is always successful in 



foundations of his own for a saucer spite of all hindrances unless he has 



nest in a bush. But as a general rule, a very vigilant and determined adver- 



either the feeding ground or the nature sary. There is no fresh greenery, and 



of the perch most dear to the bird the evergreen trees are too coarse in 



fixes the situation of the nest. The the branch to be of service for the 



situation fixes the character of the delicate nest he has to weave. So he 



nest, because situation resolves the is perfectly accustomed to set his nest 



question of protective mimicry and in a web of dead, tangled creepers 



assimilation to surroundings, or, on against an old summer house, or what 



the other hand, inaccessibility to what not. Anywhere will do if there are 



is plainly to be seen. only close set twigs of slender girth 



Of all British bird architects, the on which to sling his delicate pouch, 



longtailed tit is faced with the most An external adornment of moss and 



difficult problem, and solves it most lichens, skilfully interwoven with the 



successfully. Safety is a terrible anxi- surroundings, preserves it from being 



ety with him. He begins to build long seen when the sunlight is full upon 



before the hedgerows and shrubberies it. And mark his ingenuity he has 



are green, and he is too tender to safe- one trick that he shares with no other 



guard himself by building high, for early nesting bird that builds in the 



that means exposure to weather. If open, for his nest is very, very seldom 



there is furze at hand he will build in visible from below as a dark mass 



it, because it is green when he needs against the light. One would almost 



cover. If there are no furze bushes imagine that he hopped round it, 



he will seek green thorn. If, as is above and below, viewing it from 



usual for him in most years, the thorn every coign and in every focus. Thus 



is not yet green, he will still make his he secures safety theoretically, and in 



nest an exceptionally difficult one to practice, too, for I have never yet 



find. He never perpetrates the sole- marked a longtailed tit's nest and after- 



cisms of the year old thrush, beginning wards found it despoiled. Next he 



