APRIL. 69 



your walks, with their well-remembered aspects 

 and notes. White-throats, whinchats, reed- 

 sparrows, etc. perched on their old haunts, and 

 following their diversified habits, seem as little 

 fatigued, or strange, as if they had worn invi- 

 sible jackets all winter, and had never left the 

 spot. There is something truly delightful to 

 the naturalist in the beauty of birds' nests, and 

 the endless varieties of colours, spots and hie- 

 roglyphic scrolls, on their eggs ; the picturesque 

 places in which they are fixed, from the lap- 

 wing's on the naked fallow, to that of the eagle 

 in its lofty and inaccessible eyrie ; in the different 

 degrees of art displayed, from the rude raft of a 

 few sticks, made by the wood-pigeon, to the ex- 

 quisite little dome of the golden-crested wren, 

 or the long-tailed titmouse (parus caudatus), a 

 perfect oval stuck between the branches of a 

 tree, having a small hole on one side for en- 

 trance ; the interior lined with the most downy 

 feathers, enriched with sixteen or seventeen 

 eggs, like small oval pearls ; and the exterior 

 most tastefully decorated with a profusion of 

 spangles of silvery lichen on dark-green moss. 



Boys are completely absorbed by their admi- 

 ration of birds' nests. In vain do parents scold 

 about torn clothes, scratched hands, shoes spoil- 

 ed with dew; every field and wood is traversed, 

 every bush explored ; no tree is too high, no 



