Reluctantly Forsaken Nest 349 



are interlaced with one another, and with the larger branches, 

 till a compactness has been imparted to the whole that will 

 withstand the wear and tear of the season, or that will, as 

 just stated, suffer comparatively little harm from the rough 

 tumbling of the structure from its tree. Yet this is the 

 nest that is apt to be regarded, on a superficial examination, 

 as only a pile of sticks, in almost chaotic disposal, and which 

 it is sometimes possible to find people who profess to doubt 

 its being the unaided work of its owner ! With quite as 

 much reason might we expect the Thrush, or the tree-building 

 Wasp, to forego the manufacture of their papier-mache-like 

 habitations, or the Martin, or the Nuthatch, to disregard 

 the use of clay, as to find the Sparrow-Hawk departing 

 from her equally long inherited instincts of nest-building. 



Wild bird though she is, a Sparrow-Hawk is not readily 

 driven to forsake her nest, once the eggs have been laid. 

 Like most other birds of prey, she seldom lays again if one 

 clutch is taken, and seems to recognise that her whole 

 season's work depends upon the one venture. I have 

 frequently seen the same bird fired at, and missed, as she 

 left her eggs, on different days, and yet return and run 

 the same risks over again : the keeper's perseverance being 

 sure, ultimately, to make up for his poor marksmanship. 

 One nest, in the Graig, was harried by some boys after the 

 eggs had been sat on for about a week, and before the 

 keeper had had an opportunity of shooting the owner. 

 Seven days later he shot the hen from another nest, in a 

 different part of the estate, and, from curiosity, took the 

 eggs from it and placed them in the empty Graig nest, on 

 his way home. A day or two later the hawk, who had lost 

 her own eggs, had taken possession of those placed in her 

 nest, and was brooding them closely, and was in due time 

 shot from them. I saw the whole thing done myself, so 

 can vouch for the accuracy of every detail. 



Frequently the poor victims, when sitting, refuse to be 

 driven from their nests without a good deal of hand-clapping, 

 or kicking at the bottom of the tree, and more than once I 

 have seen one allow a man to climb the tree almost within 

 touching distance of her before doing so. The photo- 



