Some Curious Notes from My Diary 



the latter bird lining the old home of a throstle with 

 nice soft, dead grass and then utilizing it. Twice at 

 least in my life I have seen the disused home of a black- 

 bird profusely lined with rabbits' down and then occu- 

 pied by a pair of great tits. Not many years ago I dis- 

 covered a cole tit sitting on a clutch of eggs in a brown 

 wren's nest built in ivy growing on a garden wall. 

 Stranger still, perhaps, humble bees will occasionally 

 carry moss into the last-named bird's wee home and 

 breed in it. 



I am sometimes asked how long it takes a bird to 

 build its nest. Everything depends upon the architec- 

 ture of the species and circumstances. An elaborate 

 structure like that of the bottle tit, made of an in- 

 credible number of wee bits of lichen and cobwebs on 

 the outside and lined upon occasion with as many as two 

 thousand separate feathers, naturally occupies a far 

 longer time in building than the scanty cradle of a 

 peewit, consisting only of a little hollow lined with a 

 handful of dry straws. 



In the early part of the breeding season a pair of 

 robins will occupy a whole fortnight in building, going 

 about their task in the most leisurely manner for an 

 hour or two in the morning, and then flying away to 

 enjoy themselves for the rest of the day. At the height 

 of the breeding season, however, when conditions 

 demand a more strenuous application of labour I have 



