At Home with Wild Nature 



plum tree about twelve to fifteen feet away and within 

 full view of its original site ! When the bird returned 

 she ran up and down, round and round the trunk of the 

 ash tree, but utterly failed to discover the new location 

 of her home, until she flew into the plum tree and 

 descended upon it by what appeared to be an accident. 

 The chicks were fed, and away sped the parent bird in 

 search of more ants' eggs. I concluded that once dis- 

 covered there would be no further difficulty in remem- 

 bering the whereabouts of the nesting-box. In this, 

 however, I was greatly mistaken. When the wryneck 

 again returned she flew straight to the old position of 

 her home on the ash tree, wandered up and down, round 

 and round, looking everywhere, but could neither 

 remember where she had last left it nor rediscover it. 

 Her distress became so manifest that out of pity I was 

 compelled to re-establish the old order of things and end 

 her troubles. 



The result of this experiment was a direct contrast 

 to that of a similar one I carried out on a pair of 

 starlings. They followed their nesting-box all over the 

 orchard, and entered and left it even when it was on the 

 ground. 



Occasionally an individual of a species will stand out 

 head and shoulders above its fellows in point of 

 mentality. 



We always feed members of the titmouse family 

 liberally in our garden during the winter months by 

 suspending the kernels of Barcelona nuts and other 

 fruit in readily accessible situations. Blue tits are good 



