94 A MIDLAND TILLAGE : RAILWAY AND WOODLAND. 



a greater or less degree, and also a certain hard knob in the 

 upper mandible of the bill, which is said to be used as a grind- 

 stone for the grain and seeds which are the food of them all in 

 the adult state. 



Keeping yet awhile to the railway, let us notice that even the 

 station itself meets with some patronage from the birds. In the- 

 stacks of coal which are built up close to the siding, the Pied 

 Wagtails occasionally make their nests, fitting them into some 

 hospitable hole or crevice. These, like all other nests found in 

 or about the station, are carefully protected by the employes of 

 the company. In a deep hole in the masonry of the bridge which 

 crosses the line a few yards below the station, a pair of Great 

 Titmice built their nest two years ago, and successfully brought 

 up their young, regardless of the puffing and rattling of the trains : 

 for the hole was in the inside of the bridge, and only some six 

 feet from the rails of the down line. A little coppice, remnant 

 of a larger wood cut down to make room for the railway, still 

 harbours immense numbers of birds; here for example I always 

 hear the ringing note of the Lesser Whitethroat ; and here, 

 until a few years ago, a Nightingale rejoiced in the density of 

 the overgrown underwood. 



A Eing-ousel, the only specimen, alive or dead, which I have 

 seen or heard of in these parts, was found dead here one morning 

 some years ago, having come into collision with the telegraph 

 wires in the course of its nocturnal migration. It was preserved 

 and stuffed by the station-master, who showed it to me as a 

 piebald Blackbird. 



A little further down the line is another bridge, in which 



