243 
WALLS AND WALL-NESTERS. 
Miss M. L. ARMITT, 
Rydal Cottage, Ambleside, Westmorland. 
Wuen the world was younger than at present; when, for instance, 
the Kelt was not yet ; when pre-historic man fished in our rivers and 
lakes, and slew beasts with his flint arrow on the margins of the 
wood; when dense, impenetrable forest and shrub stretched over 
vast areas of our island, and closed right up to the strips of fen and 
marsh land in which the streams then meandered ; when all this was, 
the conditions of bird-life must have been widely different from what 
they are at present. It is probable that if a naturalist of the nine- 
teenth century could be transported back into those dim regions of 
time, for a few hours, he would not only cause an electrical shock of 
surprise to his prototype, but might himself be able to take a few 
surprising notes. 
Specially favourable must the natural conditions of the land have. 
been to birds of forest and of fen. All birds that find life in large 
trees, and that make their nests in holes of trees, must have thriven. 
The tree of the wild forest would live its full term of years. Pushing 
upward, among a thousand starting seedlings, it fought for its chance 
above of space and light; it grew sturdy and strong, from stripling 
to giant; it lasted through a maturity of some few hundreds of 
years; it slowly aged, with rivening bark and breaking bough and 
hollowing trunk; and lasted till of sheer decrepitude, it dropped 
to earth. What trees might be if left to natural decay may be guessed 
from the hoary patriarch of Yewdale, that needed, in spite of scanty 
foliage and ribboned bole a wind of phenomenal speed, such as 
raged here on the morning of December 22nd, 1894, to fell it at last. 
It is difficult to realise, in a generation that scarce allows maturity 
to its trees, that lops its oaks into trunkless brush-wood for bobbin 
mills, and that fells its quick-planted larch-woods before scar OF 
seam can touch them, what homes of security and comfort the 
naturally-ageing tree will furnish for pirds! Indeed, the connection 
between rotting timber and bird-life is not apparent, because It 1s 
rarely seen. But the old tree is very important to many species 
birds at the nesting period, when it is of vital importance that the 
cradle of their helpless offspring should be placed in a security 
Sufficient to outwit their numerous foes. Birds evade danger by 
different methods, some building mossy CUPS in the inner forks of 
dense bushes, others weaving hammocks 0 
undergrowth, others twining a nest beneath the unsuspected clod. 
But no site is so safe, so cosy, or So snug as the 
Probably, none is so ancient of usage. 
Aug. 1897. 
