158 BIRDS' NESTS AND NESTING WAYS 



no doubt from the nearest farmyard rubbish 

 heap. Robert Gray l describes a nest near Loch 

 Lomond, some fifty years ago, as suggesting 

 that ' the bird had robbed some gaberlunzie of 

 his wardrobe, a pair of ragged trousers, worn 

 stockings, and part of an old shirt, being among 

 the articles.' 



The kite has little fear of man, and his con- 

 stant raids on the poultry yards doubtless 

 brought about his destruction. To-day a small 

 remnant still exists, carefully preserved and 

 cherished, in a certain district of Wales. 



Of all our British birds the chaffinch is pre- 

 eminent as the architect of the most beautiful 

 and artistic of nests. Placed, as a rule, at a 

 height intermediate between the higher and the 

 lower building species, the nest is usually so 

 alike to its immediate surroundings as to be 

 easily overlooked. The moss, grass stems and 

 rootlets are deftly interwoven, felted together 

 with spiders' webs, and delicately lined with wool 

 feathers, hair and such like soft materials ; the 

 outer walls spangled with lichens and mosses, 

 the whole so beautifully rounded as to suggest 

 the turning-lathe or potter's wheel rather than the 

 unaided efforts of the tiny builder. Sometimes 

 one finds exceptions to the general rule, as in 



1 Birds of the West of Scotland. 



