180 Wild Life in a Southern County. 
spots and veins, others again blue. These eggs, when 
taken and the yolk blown out, were strung on a ben- 
net and so carried home. The lads like to get them 
as soon after laid as possible, because they blow best 
then ; if hard set the shell may break. 
In the circular window they have left a nest of the 
long-tailed tit, or ‘tit-mouse,’ built exactly in the 
shape of a hut with roof and tiny doorway, and always 
securely attached in the midst of a thorn bush to 
branches that are stiff and unlikely to bend with the 
breeze, so that this beautiful piece of bird-architecture 
may not be disturbed. To take it, it is generally ne- 
cessary to cut away several boughs. Such nests are 
often seen in farmhouses placed as an ornament on 
the mantelpiece. Spiders have filled the window with 
their webs, and to these every now and then during the 
day—there is no door to the summer-house—come a 
robin, a wren, and a flycatcher. E/jther of these, but 
more particularly the two last, will take insects from 
the spider’s web. 
The flycatcher has a favourite perch close by, and 
may perhaps hear the shrill buzz when an insect is 
caught. The flycatcher is a regular summer visitor: 
in the orchard, garden, and adjacent rickyard at least 
three pairs build every year. Under the shady apple 
trees near the summer-house one may be seen the 
whole day long ever on the watch. He perches on a 
dead branch, low down—not up among the boughs, 
‘but as much as possible under them. Every two or 
