349



07 i a Chapter of Accidents.



seemed to hunt the water-meadows, but always after they had

finished at home they moved off to the high down-land behind

the house.


Early in June they began nesting in one of the boxes and

as afterwards transpired laid six eggs.


Ours is a great bee country because of the good supply of

thyme and other bee flowers on the downs. There are many hives

in every village ; in one field not far off are over seventy hives in

a row. East year (1903) a swarm of bees took possession of one

of the Owl-boxes and gave us 25lbs. weight of pure honey. The

box was then unoccupied so it was of little moment. But,

again this year a strong swarm suddenly appeared in the air and

went straight into the box where the Barn Owls were with their

eggs. The poor birds remained in the box all day in spite of

their myriad foes, but with evening they could bear it no

longer ; and a little before their usual time both flew from the

box to return to it no more. When after much difficulty we had

removed the box and driven out the bees, there were the six

eggs, each containing a dead young Owl that would have been

hatched in a few days’ time. The ill luck of these birds might

clearly have overtaken them just the same had they been quite

wild birds in their hollow tree.


But Rooks and Owls are not the only wild birds that have

fared badly in our garden this summer. A pair of Yellow-

hammers made a nest right in the middle of a big rhubarb

leaf a foot or more above the ground. The hen laid five eggs

and began to sit. It was an odd, ill-considered place, yet

doubtless she would have hatched; but there chanced a day

when a sudden storm of wind upset the nest, and all the eggs

rolled out.


A Tree-creeper, again, hatched seven eggs in the thatched

side of a garden hut. All went well until the young were just

ready to fly and then one morning saw them all dead in the nest.

Something no doubt had killed the old birds, but what ? A

weasel could have climbed up but would have taken the young

as well ; nor have we ever seen a weasel in the garden.


We had also a Goldfinch’s nest in the top of a twenty-



