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Practical Bird-Keeping.



I ever found completely covered outside with grey-white lichen

was placed in an elm-hedge skirting a wood and was so glaringly

conspicuous that no passer by could possibly fail to notice it:

the lichen had been obtained from a tree a few feet behind in

the wood. This is not an isolated instance; the nest of the

Long-tailed Tit is frequently a prominent object in a roadside

hedge, and consequently tempts the young clodhopper to exhibit

his destructive instincts.


In the foregoing observations I have dealt chiefly with

those Larks which spend a considerable part of their existence

upon the earth or near it. but there are others, such as the Wood-

lark, which often settle upon the tops of hedges or the branches

of trees, and for these it is necessary to provide loftier cages

supplied with perches for their use during the daytime : at night,

like other larks they rest upon the ground. Even a Skylark can

settle upon a branch, and one which I kept in an aviary frequently

did so, but it looks awkward in that position with its long hind

claw pointing straight downwards.



