BIRDS' NESTS. 91 



have taken possession. Is a hole left in a wall 

 to let air into a loft or garret ? it is forth- 

 with rendered useless by a sparrow's nest. 

 Do the eaves of a thatched cottage show 

 symptoms of decay ? a flock of sparrows dis- 

 cover the weak point, and add to the mischief 

 by excavating dwellings for themselves. A 

 hole in a tree offers an asylum to another pair; 

 to another the branches of a poplar, or a mass 

 of knotted ivy ; while by others, as dishonest as 

 idle, the newly finished and carefully plastered 

 dwelling of a house martin is most unscru- 

 pulously appropriated. The materials of which 

 the nests are constructed, are scarcely less 

 varied than the site. Unsophisticated sparrows, 

 if such there be, probably confine .themselves 

 to hay and feathers, but one would not be 

 unlikely to find in any casual nest the follow- 

 ing heterogeneous articles, a bit of red cloth, 

 a lock of wool, a few scraps of paper, a piece 

 of stay-lace, a tuft of hair, a shoe-tie, &c., all 

 interwoven with hay and feathers. But though 



