48 WILD NATURE'S WAYS. 



took them out into the fields, and substituted 

 them for a clutch of eggs in the nest of a mavis. 

 Returning half an hour later to ascertain what 

 had happened, I found the thrush sitting tight 

 and cosy on my wooden counterfeits. When 

 she took wing, I noticed something drop from 

 her nether plumage as she scurried out of the 

 hedgerow, and going to the spot where it fell, 

 picked up one of my substantial shams, only two 

 of which remained in the nest. The great heat 

 of the bird's body had melted the varnish, and 

 made the eggs adhere to her feathers, and I 

 make no doubt she suffered something in the 

 nature of a shock when she rose to fly away and 

 found two of them clinging to her garments. I 

 quite expected this uncanny experience would 

 make her forsake the nest, and as she did not 

 return to it again within reasonable time, I took 

 her eggs and distributed them amongst other 

 song thrushes and blackbirds I knew to be due 

 to hatch out about the same time as she would 

 have been in the ordinary course of things. 



When the varnish on the remaining members 

 of my clutch of dummies was thoroughly dry I 

 experimented upon a blackbird with complete 

 success. 



Whilst in Westmoreland on one occasion I had 

 a starling's nest containing three newly hatched 

 chicks shown to me in a ventilation hole in one 



