i54 JUNE 



multiplied the nests and so attracted new species as the 

 wholesale cutting down of this sedge. Little spinneys 

 and copses of it are left ; and these the birds love, even 

 so preferring the extreme edges. It was at the fringe of 

 a riding, so to say, in one of these spinneys, that I first 

 saw that rare and lovely bird, the bearded tit ; and she 

 was content, in spite of natural timidity, to feed her 

 young within a few feet of the observer. The bird is 

 among the most furtive and shy, but her nest, as the 

 nest of that yet more furtive bird, the bittern, which I 

 saw at as close quarters in the same place, both illus 

 trated the common preference even of the &quot; agora 

 phobes &quot; for some such degree of openness. 



Within this sanctuary it was particularly pleasing to 

 find so many broods of so many species reared without 

 mishap, since in other experiences of that year I had seen, 

 not in one place but many, almost wholesale destruction. 

 In one garden in Worcestershire, near the Shropshire 

 boundary, exactly twelve nests of small birds were 

 located and fondly watched. All but two were harried, 

 and it was thought that some of the builders themselves 

 were killed* The villains of the piece were a pair of 

 tawny owls, who had nested at the edge of the garden in 

 an ivied tree. Unlike most birds of prey such as buz 

 zard, raven, and peregrine falcon, which seldom kill in 

 the neighbourhood of the nest they had cleared the 

 surrounding bushes and trees, and must have been 

 harpies of a peculiar malignity. One of them actually 

 attacked and routed the owner of the garden, and the 

 same bird was killed a little later by a woman whom it 

 attacked with beak and claw in the lane adjoining the 

 garden. For myself, I have looked into the nest of 

 just one tawny owl this year. It contained one egg, one 

 young bird, and the half-consumed bodies of two young 



