A MARKED SWALLOW 125 



The fondness of some birds for human houses is 

 curious. Where did swallows build before man s eaves 

 were provided ? Caves, after all, are only to be found at 

 the sea-side. Did they then adopt the resource of the 

 sand-martins and nest in holes ? Wrens of course have 

 a special liking for the outhouse. I have watched one 

 this year build a part of no fewer than three nests within 

 one deserted hen-house. The first and second were so 

 insecurely perched on the top of a beam that they fell by 

 their own weight, unless it was that a rat climbed up to 

 them. The third is now completed in the opposite 

 corner, and is neat and firm. Since no eggs are laid, it is 

 probably a cock nest ; and by what strange freak has it 

 come about that the male of the wren, almost alone 

 among birds, has a fashion for building nests that will 

 never be used ? With what furious zest he goes to work, 

 till the roof is on. When so much is accomplished, his 

 zeal will as suddenly flag, and the nests remain unlined 

 till they collapse. Is it possible that they are meant for 

 shelter ? After all, the wren is one of the few birds that 

 will take refuge in old nests for roosting when winter is 

 cold. 



The loveliest buildings of the year are found in the 

 eatly days. On one morning of early May I saw nests of 

 the long-tailed tit on a briaj: bush of a chaffinch on a 

 willow stump, and of a golden-crested wren under the 

 bough of a Douglas fir. These three come first in skill 

 and delicacy of execution ; and two of them are usefully 

 adapted to their surroundings. The canopy of the fir 

 bough this bird s almost invariable choice conceals 

 the nest from above, where perhaps concealment is most 

 necessary, and the green tidiness may always be mistaken 

 for an accidental thickening of needles to the gazer from 

 below. Chaffinches nests, which are yet more neatly 



