102 BIRD LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 



may be done by artful blending of moss, wool and 

 lichens, that of the bullfinch shows what a high level 

 may be attained by the use of such unpromising 

 material as fine twigs and slender roots. The willow 

 wren and chiffchaff build the dome-shaped structures 

 which have led country boys to name them " oven 

 birds," with the advantage that a roof shelters the 

 feather-bed upon which repose their fragile pink eggs. 

 Then what various tastes are shown in choice of site. 

 The flycatcher builds on the horizontal branch of 

 the pear-tree trained along the garden wall, the 

 nightingale in the drift of dead oak-leaves at the 

 foot of the honeysuckle, while the tree-creeper has 

 found that there is just room to squeeze in its nest 

 between the old ivy-stem and the tree-trunk to 

 which it clings. The great-tit has a weakness 

 for disused pumps and country letter-boxes ; the 

 marsh-tit excavates in the touch-wood of the willow 

 stump, while the blue-tit, sitting deep in the hollow 

 gate-post, when investigated, hisses in a series of 

 explosive puffs, but refuses to budge. 



But for variety of small birds commend us to some 

 quiet nook in the West Midlands where, by grassy lane, 

 past hop-yard and bluebell copse, one reaches some 

 sequestered orchard of old fruit-trees, their gnarled 

 limbs green with moss or grey with lichen, and abound- 

 ing in those holes so dear to many birds when on nesting 

 bent. A nightingale hops out from the hedge, 



