CURIOSITIES OF WILD LIFE. 79 



humble bee to take possession of a wren's nest and 

 use it for her own domestic requirements, but 

 I imagine it is not often that such a small creature 

 aspires to either the room or elevation afforded 

 by a squirrel's drey. Three years ago, whilst 

 searching a plantation on the slopes of the Pennine 

 range, the small boy who was doing my tree- 

 climbing for me suddenly withdrew his hand 

 from a squirrel's nest I had requested him to 

 investigate, and made a startled exclamation. 

 In response to an enquiry on the subject of his 

 alarm, he answered, " Tharr's summat quear 

 aboot this ! " And he hurled the whole thing 

 viciously to the ground before I could stop him. 

 I naturally expected to find an ill-fated family 

 of baby squirrels in the shattered structure, but 

 my surprise was as great as that of the boy's 

 when I found a humble bees' nest and a dead 

 stoat amongst the moss, dry grass, and twigs. 



The trunk of the fir-tree was branchless for 

 a yard and a half from the butt, and the drey 

 between thirty and forty feet from the ground, 

 and how the stoat which had apparently been 

 dead before the humble bee took possession 

 came there is a mystery to me. I cut his tail off, 

 and brought it away as a souvenir of the strange 

 occurrence. 



A friend of mine, whilst taking a walk one 

 day through a Surrey wood, heard a jay com- 



