WILD CREATURES OF GARDEN AND HEDGEROW 



happens is that the old birds go on strike ! 

 At any rate they do not go backwards and 

 forwards quite so often just then. At first, 

 while the little ones are very small, the cock 

 does most of the work, their mother staying 

 to cover the naked mites from both sun and 

 rain, for they are nearly as much distressed 

 by one as the other. It is not only for shelter 

 from enemies that birds choose thick bushes in 

 which to build their nests, but also for the 

 sake of shade. 



How sensitive nestlings are to the slightest 

 shake of the surrounding branches may be 

 tested by gently moving one of the boughs, 

 when the four or five heads will shoot up 

 into the air, and beg with open beaks for 

 food. In a second or two, if nothing hap- 

 pens, they sink back again, only to shoot up 

 again like ' jack-in-the-boxes ' at the least 

 trembling of a twig. When they get older, 

 when their eyes are open and their feathers 

 are beginning to grow, the young birds are not 

 so easily taken in ; they no longer open their 

 beaks in expectant innocence when a finger is 

 held near them, but crouch down in the nest. 

 Fear has come to them, the fear of all that is 

 strange, and particularly of man, the strangest 

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