CURIOSITIES OF WILD LIFE. 57 



the rushes figured in the illustration. When 

 my task was completed, I carefully lifted nest 

 and young from their hollow in the rain- 

 sodden ground, and placed them in a hole 

 purposely left for their reception about a couple 

 of feet from the base of the newly built stone 

 wall, and then went into hiding in my artificial 

 rock standing less than two yards away. 



In a few minutes the female ring ouzel arrived 

 with a splendid array of wriggling worms in her 

 bill. Her astonishment was unmistakable. She 

 cocked her head on one side, stared intently into 

 the declivity recently occupied by her nest and 

 chicks for some moments in silence, and then, 

 uttering a distressed cry, dropped her food, and 

 flew to the top of my stone wall, where she sat 

 listening and looking a veritable picture of 

 maternal misery. Her huddled form and doleful 

 looks made me, I must confess, feel something of 

 a barbarian, and I was seized with a great impulse 

 to replace the nest straightway. I think I should 

 have done so, had not the male bird arrived upon 

 the scene with a supply of greenish-brown grubs, 

 and engaged my attention in his behaviour. He 

 also showed considerable surprise at the absence 

 of his callow brood, but did not allow distress to 

 interfere with appetite for swallowing the grubs ; 

 he flew away, and did not reappear during the 

 remainder of the time I spent at the place. 



