44 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
nest, was a damp black mass sparkling with the remains of green 
and blue bottle flies, &c., and doubtless left there by the Wood- 
peckers. At the same place and on the same day I examined 
three other holes of Picus major, also in ash. In one which had 
been lately clayed up by a Nuthatch, I found a Starling’s nest of 
five eggs. As to the following incident about the Starling, I 
unfortunately made no note of it at the time in my diary, but I 
feel sure that a Starling flew out whilst I was examining the nest, 
and that I took from under the Starling’s nest an old dried body 
or skeleton of another Starling. 
Near Sparham, on May 21st. 1877, I found a clutch of seven 
Nuthatches’ eggs (sat on) in the same hole which contained a 
- clutch of eleven eggs the previous summer. Nest as usual of 
pine bark and clay, On the 25th I examined another nest, also 
of pine bark and clay; the eggs were nearly hatched, and had the 
leaden hue which they (and the eggs of the Titmice also) 
gradually acquire during incubation. This colour is partly 
caused by the eggs becoming less transparent, but chiefly by some 
very fine dirt or colouring-matter which can be washed off; it is 
probably a mixture of turpentine and lichen dust from the pine 
bark. 
In the same place the following year, on the 30th June, I saw 
another nest of five eggs, with pine bark and clay as usual. 
In 1879, May 9th, in the same locality, I saw two Nuthatches’ 
nests, both in ash trees, eight eggs in one, and seven eggs in the 
other. Although I put the birds off (and they were both 
“sitting ”), the eggs were covered with pine bark in both nests. 
There was also a little hazel bark and a few dead leaves with the 
pine bark. The holes were as usual lined with clay. One hole, 
if not both, was originally made by Picus major. A Starling, 
dead and stinking, partly blocked up the entrance of one nest, and 
the Nuthatch was sitting with its bill almost resting on the dead 
Starling. The Starling was nearly (but not quite) dried up, and 
the Nuthatch had to pass over its body to go to or from the eggs. 
On the 17th of the same month I examined another Nuthatch’s 
nest a few hundred yards from the two last described. It 
contained five eggs (sat on) in an old nest of Picus major, which 
had been used also by the Great Titmouse and by Starlings. 
he entrance was lined with clay.. This nest was of pine bark, a 
few dead leaves, lumps of hard clay, and bits of dead wood. 
