98 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



a brief and valuable summary of the bird-attracting powers of 

 the fir in its different stages of development. " In a fir planta- 

 tion, which is neither so low as to partake of the mushroom 

 growth of pines (especially Pinus sylvestris) upon too rich soils, 

 nor too inland and upland, there is a succession of birds. Lin- 

 nets and other brake -birds come to them as long as they are 

 mere bushes ; but the note of the cuckoo is not' heard in them. 

 After a while the Cole -tit becomes one of their most plentiful 

 inhabitants ; and by that time the cuckoo perches and sings on 

 the margin. A few years longer, and the ringdove moans in the 

 tops of the trees, which have then begun to open toward the sur- 

 face of the ground, and the covers for the brake-birds, and rest- 

 ing-places for all birds that build hideling and near the earth, are 

 gone. The cuckoo is then herfrd less frequently, unless there are 

 coppices of deciduous trees, or young pines come up in succes- 

 sion, in the vicinity. If the trees form a belt between rich 

 grounds, the magpie, though he loves the ' home' trees better, 

 will sometimes come, a little after the wood-pigeon ; and if the 

 plantation is deep and secluded, the jay will, perhaps, come a lit- 

 tle earlier. To all these succeeds the rook, which nestles in the 

 mature trees, with the long boles clear of branches, and he quits 

 them not until they are cut down or perish in the lapse of time." 

 In my note-book there is a sketch of a curious habitation occu- 

 pied by a Cole -tit. One of the large trees at Walton Hall had 

 been infested by the fungus, which has already been mentioned, 

 and had broken asunder some eighteen or twenty feet from the 

 ground. Several spots where these fungi had softened the wood 

 were excavated by Mr. Waterton, in order to make nesting-places 

 for various birds. In such spots the owls come and breed, and 

 so do the jackdaws, starlings, and other birds. To one of these 

 cavities Mr. Waterton fitted a door, composed of bark, and in the 

 upper part of the door he cut a little circular hole. The Cole-tit 

 soon found out the hollow, and discovering that the cavity would 

 make a good dwelling-place, and that the hole afforded an easy 

 mode of entrance and egress, she proceeded to make her nest 

 therein. When I saw the tree, the Cole -tit had not begun to 

 build, but the pieces of the old nest were there, and could easily 

 be seen by opening the door. 



Another example of birds that make their nests within the hoi- , 

 low of trees is the strangely -formed Toucan (Ramphaslos Ariel). 



