ROBBING BIRDS' NESTS 31 



the bird or its nest, making important notes con- 

 cerning it, and anxiously anticipating the time 

 when each note would go to make up an interest- 

 ing story. Alas! one day when the nest was 

 visited it was gone, ruthlessly torn asunder, and 

 lay upon the ground in fragments — a mere remnant 

 of a bird's beautiful handiwork. 



How pleasant it is when one can rely on finding 

 a certain animal or plant where no harm befalls! 

 Thus this year a friend tells me he has found the 

 Pied Flycatcher nesting again for the third year in 

 the same tree, and a Willow Wren, returned from 

 across the seas, building its nest within a yard of 

 the site occupied on two previous occasions. On 

 the other hand, the same observer reports that 

 early in May he found twenty-three nests in two 

 days, and these he specially noted down so that he 

 might return another day and take photographs 

 of them. 



Judge, then, of his surprise and keen disappoint- 

 ment when it was found that only three nests out 

 of the twenty-three remained intact! As my corre- 

 spondent truly says, it is heartrending to come 

 into contact with such destruction. 



Let us pass on to pleasanter topics. 



In the last book in this series I was fortunate 

 enough to be able to give — and I am'^sure to the 

 great delight and enjoyment of a large number of 

 children — ^long extracts from a letter written by 



