234 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA. 



skeletons in Puffin burrows and Rabbit holes, 

 whither they had crept to die. 



Birds that sleep in trees and shrubs always do 

 so with their heads to the wind during a breezy 

 night; and such as patronise holes in thatches and 

 the sides of ricks shun those infested with rats or 

 mice. 



Blackbirds roost in evergreens and thick hedge- 

 rows, and when disturbed invariably flutter out 

 without uttering a sound of any kind, but nearly 

 always pipe their familiar alarm note upon re- 

 alighting. On the night of June 22nd, 1897, I was 

 in the neighbourhood of Barnet Gate, where there 

 was a particularly large Jubilee bonfire and display 

 of pyrotechnics, and I heard several Carrion Crows 

 and Blackbirds, which had been disturbed by the 

 flare and din, cry out in winging their way from 

 the vicinity. 



Thrushes sleep in similar situations to Black- 

 birds, but are a trifle more partial to evergreens, 

 and when disturbed they often make a peculiar 

 snapping noise with their bills. The picture on 

 p. 233 represents a Thrush at roost in a hedgerow. 

 It was photographed by a magnesium flash at nine 

 o'clock at night in January, 1896, and is, so far as 

 we know, the first photographic study of a wild 

 bird on its natural roost ever made. 



Open hedges and bramble bushes are patronised 

 by Yellow Hammers, which may always be known 

 by their alarm note trit trit trit when disturbed. 

 Chaffinches sleep in hedgerows, but we have met 

 with surprisingly few at night-time, even in districts 

 where they were particularly numerous by day, 

 although we have sought carefully and long. 



We have found Robins and Hedge Sparrows 

 roosting in laurel bushes, boxwood trees, and ever- 



