BIRDS. 



61 



Immediately in front of the farmhouse is a 

 paddock containing two old fruit-trees, one of 

 which is hollow and has a crack in the side run- 

 ning down to within twenty inches of the ground. 



IIOBIX'S NEST ix A JAM-JAK. 



In the spring of 189G a pair of starlings bred in 

 it, and their nest was situated so far down the 

 hole that I was obliged to use a lighted wax vesta 

 on the end of a cleft stick in order to make out 

 its contents. In 1897 the hole was tenanted by 

 house-sparrows and the materials of their nest 



