148 FAMILIAR WILD BIRDS. 



occurred in the neighbourhood of Skegness, where a pair of 

 Marsh Titmice selected a farmer's letter-box for incubation 

 purposes, and although it was opened twice daily, and the 

 materials with which the birds began to build were several 

 times cleared away, they doggedly persisted in their efforts, 

 and eventually succeeded in making a nest and depositing 

 the usual number of eggs. 



These odd positions and situations are evidently not 

 chosen for purposes of concealment from man, at any rate ; 

 indeed, it is a question whether some of them are not 

 adopted to secure the advantage his presence affords against 

 the incursions of predatory birds and animals. And, on 

 the other hand, if these seeming departures from instinct 

 be admitted as due to reason, it seems strange that whilst 

 some birds are capable of this, others exhibit what seems 

 to human understanding profound stupidity. We have 

 known birds vainly try to build in positions where it was 

 impossible for a nest to rest, each piece of material falling 

 to the ground, until sufficient had been collected for half a 

 dozen nests ; yet the bird kept on collecting sticks, moss, 

 and grasses, until probably she was obliged to drop her 

 eggs in the fields. This is not a solitary instance, nor 

 only once attempted, for close observation proved that the 

 same inexplicable vain effort was continued from year to 

 year, but whether by the same birds or not it is of course 

 impossible to say. 



THE RING OUZEL. 



THE mountainous districts of the north of England and 

 Scotland are the favourite nesting-places of this bird, 

 which seems most at home in lonely secluded districts. 



