yellow-hammer's nest 



CHAPTER IX 



On the Peculiarities and Instinct of different Animals — Eggs of Birds — Nests — The 

 Fox— Red-Deer Hind 



There are two birds which, although wild and unapproachable 

 at every other time, throw themselves during the breeding- 

 season on the mercy and protection of man : these are the 

 wood-pigeon and the missel-thrush. Scarcely any bird is more 

 wary than the wood-pigeon at other times, yet in the spring 

 there are generally half-a-dozen nests in the most exposed 

 places close to my house, while the old birds sit tamely, and 

 apparently devoid of all fear, close to the windows ; they seem 

 to have an instinctive knowledge of. places where they are 

 allowed to go through the business of incubation without being 

 molested. In like manner, the missel-thrush, though during 

 the rest of the year it is nearly impossible to get within a 

 hundred yards of it, forms its nest in the apple-trees close to 

 the house : they build at a height of six or seven feet, in the 

 fork of the tree where the main l.inibs branch off; iand although 



