244 ARMITT: WALLS AND WALL-NESTERS. 
Even now, scarce as old timber is, birds of many species still 
seek the retirement of hole in rotting tree-trunk or bough, wherever 
such can be found, in which to breed. And it is probable that 
there may have. been in those far-off days many more species of 
hole-nesting birds, before the slow shrinkage of forest area began 
by Keltic axe and Saxon fire. It is probable, too, that the hole- 
breeding species now in existence were then much more individually _ 
numerous. 
Indeed, we may almost watch, in these latter days, the last 
flickerings of some racial life or other that depended wholly on trees 
for a homestead. The Wryneck is a case in point ; very rare now it 
is, yet clearly, a century or so back, it was moderately common. It 
was known as the companion of the Cuckoo ; its strange laugh was 
welcomed as a sound of full spring, when it returned to build in the 
‘old orchard’ tree. But its rarer occurrence in Cumberland was 
one of its habitats, but I have not met with it. : 
But if we consider the nesting propensities, not solely of — 
of the pure forest type, but of the whole range of species, and note 
how many there are (even of those that are independent of trees 1? 
food-getting) that yet seek some kind of hole to breed in, ie sees 
guess how large a dependence on old timber the birds of pre-histori¢ 
times must have had. i 
_ Among birds of prey there are the Owls. According to Yarrell 
the Scops Owl and the Little Owl, as well as our well-known Tawny 
Owl, breed in trees ; while the Barn-Owl, who in its mouse-seeking 
proclivities has cutely associated itself with man and man’s ae 
dwellings, will still occasionally make shift with a tree. — 
Crows (Corvide) the Jackdaw loves a dark hole; and if : 
does not find it in a chimney or a church tower, will fall = 
upon the possibly ancestral habit of a roomy and hollow tun 
The Starling is a true hole-breeder, and though it has, as 4 nee 
placed itself confidently and almost wholly under the protection 
man, and thrives mightily in consequence, it may be found oat 
Na Ke 
