62 The Naturalist in Siluria. 



nesting with us, and continuing its sojourn throughout 

 the whole year. 



Mr. Brammer, one of the wood- wards employed in the 

 adjacent Forest of Dean — a Government property — tells 

 me of a bird which makes its nest in a very original and 

 singular situation. When a portion of the Forest timber 

 is cut down, for the slabs and props used in the coal-mines, 

 it is first stacked or corded, the " cords " being separated 

 by upright stakes driven into the ground between. 

 When the wood is hauled away, these stakes are often left 

 standing, and remain so for many years. After a time, 

 the weather having free play upon them, they become 

 partially decayed ; and then a small bird, — a tit, as my 

 informant supposes it to be, — hollows out a cavity in one 

 or other of them, near their top or head, in which it makes 

 a nest and brings forth its young. A small round hole, 

 he describes it, running several inches into the stake, 

 horizontally at first, then lowering to the nest. Mr. 

 Brammer, although a truthful and intelligent man, is, like 

 my nearer neighbour, the ranger, not much of a natural- 

 ist; and I take it that his "tit" is neither more nor less 

 than a Nuthatch. At all events the bird certainly does 

 not belong to the family of the Paridce. For, though the 

 latter often make their nests in holes of trees, they do 

 not themselves make the holes, and cannot. I intend 

 paying a visit to these timber troglodytes, and scraping 

 acquaintance with them. 



