250 ARMITT: WALLS AND WALL-NESTERS. 
treasure-hole was in a wall not four feet from the ground, and well in 
reach, kept almost entire silence, waiting at a little distance for the 
intruder to pass on. The youngsters, too, though rasping when fed, 
as all nestlings do, made much less noise than did the safe brood. 
The Blue Titmouse, indeed, understands well the axiom of silence. 
I have followed a Blue to the hole into which it had darted, and not 
a sound or movement betrayed the life within ; yet, when peering 
eye grew accustomed to the darkness, a crowd of little heads was 
visible, with the parent crouching protectingly in front, waiting under 
the shield of stillness for the terrible moment of danger to pass. 
How much, indeed, depends on this caution, when the nest opens 
on to a public road, and the parents’ visits are constant and 
increasing! It is really a wonder a nest so placed ever escapes; 
and many a big gap in lonely road wall shows where ruthless hands 
have torn the structure, to reach and rob the nest which has been 
placed deep within it. 
The Coal Titmouse, too, loves a wall adjacent to the woods it 
frequents. There, in a shady, moss-grown stret¢éh, backed up by 
slope of earth, where scarce a stone is bare of green, and seedling 
plants—herb-robert, shining crane’s-bill, wall-rue saxifrage, wall 
lettuce, primrose, foxglove even—start and __ flower, on —s 
sometimes see a wee bird pause fluttering, in front of the rigid line 
of greenery, and then disappear in its depths. It is a sight to make 
one curious ; it means a secret homestead within the hidden masonry; 
the generation of species in a tiny winged being, with all the joy and 
pain and care that attend the process. 
' The Great Titmouse has more frequently, I believe, its 0 
out of arms’ reach. The pair will, perched upon adjacent boughs, 
scold the biped whose interest is too clearly excited in their domeste 
affairs. 
est well 
The Starling is, of course, a most regular ‘lodger’ in our pie! 
ings. Every outhouse, byre, or stable has in May its brood 
nestlings, eagerly crushing and screeching for food within the py ee 
stones; and it is with the boldest unconcern that the parents Aly. 
back and forth. 
Then the Pied Wagtail, that trips so daintily about the roofs, has 
its nest somewhere in the farm premises, and sometimes 10 eee 
wall, though it is kept so secret as to be rarely discovered. ee 
any amount of waiting will induce these birds—laden though 
bills may be with flies or moths—to enter their hole while a .. D, 
is by. They lie low successfully. They can out-manceuyre ee 
where they are helpless before a smaller enemy. I have men oe 
