80 . The Naturalist in Siluria. 



and so attached to the tree in which the nest is placed that 

 the removal of it would either entail its destruction or cut- 

 ting off' the tree's top. With the Crow's nest it is dif- 

 ferent ; this being set in a fork of the trunk with little or 

 no fastening, and can be lifted out bodily without break- 

 ing it up. Besides, the materials of the outer wall are 

 not thorns, but the slender twigs of other trees, none of 

 them thicker than a penholder. Those in the nest before 

 me are nearly all oak, with a strand or two of honey- 

 suckle entwined, evidently to bind them together. But 

 what seems strangest about it is, that the oak twigs are 

 all freshly torn from the tree or trees. I say torn, since 

 each shows a ragged end, quite different from what 

 would appear had it been snapped or broken off, and as 

 if detached by a process of pulling and twisting. Now, 

 as this nest was in an oak standing amidst other oaks 

 in a wood, the twigs, no doubt, were obtained from the 

 trees around, and, I believe, plucked from them by the 

 birds themselves, since there are none lying loose upon 

 the ground, and no work going on in the wood where 

 sprays of this description could be obtained. There are 

 nearly two hundred of these slender rods forming the 

 outer wall, bent round it, and slightly wattled. 



Again, a magpie's nest is usually domed over, while 

 that of the Crow is quite open at the top, the whole 

 structure being hemispherical. The one before me is 

 eighteen inches in diameter across the top, of which the 

 wall of twigs, with inside lining included, occupies one 

 half, being about four and a half inches thick. The 

 author of "The Gamekeeper at Home," speaking of 

 Carrion Crows, says : " The keeper smites them hip and 

 thigh, and if he comes across the nest placed on the 

 broad top of a pollard tree not on the branches, but on 



