Armiti: Trees and Tree-Nesters. II 
the woodland stretch above described, the stretch ei 
makes its centre; so that the birds’ numerousness may be 
ascribed to these ancient trees, in which it habitually breeds. 
It loves those little pocket-like holes that are found in the trunk 
of even sound trees—Sycamore, Wych-elm, but generally of 
Oak—that are caused probably by the early loss of a branch ; 
or the larger space of a hollow bough; or those strange, wart- 
like excrescences, when hollow, that are sometimes seen in old © 
trees. These the hen lines with moss, bents, and rotten wood, 
making a deep cushion of such stuff as comes handiest. The 
same hole is frequently used two years at least. 
But numerous as are the nesting-holes to be found in these 
trees, they are not numerous enough for the Pied Flycatcher. 
When the birds have arrived in full force—the old males in the 
last week of April, the young ones along with the hens in the 
first or second weeks of May—there is keen competition for the 
holes left vacant by other birds. The winter residents have 
naturally been first on the ground, and suited themselves ; and, 
indeed, some of them-—the Starling and the Greatand Blue Titmice 
—seem often to take holes that have been already used by the 
Pied Flycatcher, with all the nest-stuff therein. The Starling, in 
fact, I have known to oust the little bird after it was established. 
It is capable, however, of reprisals. In the orchard of Fox 
How, as the owner narrated in the ‘ Spectator’ some years ago, 
the Pied Flycatcher not only turned a pair of Blue Tits from 
their nest-hole, but ee built its own nest on the top of their 
eggs. I have been told of several cases, of double nests in 
Thus it is that, abundant as the Pied Flycatcher is, not all 
the birds that come remain to nest. In affluent years, the males 
_ in May are planted thickly, and sing vociferously ; ; then many, 
either for want of nest-hole or mate, drift away. 
_ The birds come and go, as the summers come and go, leaving 
the old woodland much the same. When it is most beautiful, 
with its sweeps of eases grass, and its mounds of castle-like 
rocks, who shall say ? ey 
_ Inspring, when the fresh green begins to breakforth,andthe = 
Cherry trees are white with blossom, and Oaks first puton the © 
golden-green of flowers and leaves; and birds from far southern — 
lands sport, and mate, and sing, and nest in their branches ; and 
the lake gleams below the trees, and through them, not shut out 
‘yet a the expanded leaves; and the caleentdes cry in the Chae 
above. 
prune 
