200 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



each other; and a wren will rear a thi'ush or the thrush the 

 wren so far as feeding goes ; and the same with the starling, 

 with this only difference, that as the wren and the starling are 

 bred in the one instance in a hole, and in the other in a nest so 

 peculiarly constructed that the young bird can't fall out, if their 

 eggs ai'e hatched in an open nest, the young, having no instinc- 

 tive care for their safety in that position, are sure to tumble out. 

 I have, through a change of eggs, seen wrens bring up a young 

 thrush to the destruction, I regret to say, of foster brothers and 

 sisters, for the larger bird was sure to stifle them or heave them 

 from the nest. When the young thi'ush grew large he was con- 

 fined in the nest, like a toad in a hole, with only his head 

 protruding for food, it was then curious to see the tiny parents 

 of his adoption clinging to their little moss-made home, while 

 they fed his constantly gaping mouth with insects. A mistletoe 

 thrush, under whom I put a rook's egg, without taking away 

 her own, on discovering the dreadful -looking brat she had 

 hatched, seized it at once and flung it out of the nest ; and, 

 therefore, in making these exchanges, care should be taken to 

 have the whole sitting of one kind. I never knew but one 

 exception as to birds whose natui-al nest was in a hole, and their 

 not falling out of an open one, and that was when I put some 

 jackdaw's eggs under a blackbird. The blackbird hatched them 

 (to be sure her nest was against a wall, so they were fenced in 

 on one side), and fed them regularly ; and her food, though the 

 bill was different, seemed to suit them. The old blackbirds 

 were so put to it to support the foiu- young daws, that they 

 were for ever hopping about the lawn in apparent haste, and 

 looking as though they were worn by their unwonted exertions. 

 One morning on visiting the nest I found all the nestlings dead, 

 and their mouths very dirty, as if they had been fed with clay. 

 Whether or not the patience of the birds had been exliausted 

 by their inordinate craving for food, and, as it is reported of the 

 goldfinch, they poisoned them, I cannot say ; the fact is as I 

 tell it. I have never been able to make up my mind as to the 

 well-known legend of the goldfinch. Cottagers and all country 



