288 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 
Golden Oriole,,which I bought of Mr. Baker of Cambridge, 
who accounted for its condition by telling me that it was 
killed and mutilated by a Grey Shrike. The affair hap- 
pened in this wise. Both birds had nests at Falkonswaerd, 
in North Brabant, and close together, and jealousy, the 
destroyer of amity, crept in between the two mothers: at 
least I can only suppose it was this which incited the 
butcher-bird, in a moment of vindictive malice, to rip up the 
Oriole, so that the King of the Netherlands’ falconer and 
Mr. Baker actually saw the unfortunate bird’s entrails hang 
out upon the ground. 
NUTHATCH. 
April 24th, 1872. Led by her clamour, I detected the 
tail of a Nuthatch sticking out of a hole forty feet up the 
bole of a Scotch fir tree. A pair of Starlings were looking 
on. April 30th, one of the Starlings was in the hole and 
the Nuthatch had gone. Three days before I had seen 
what I think was a Nuthatch’s nest only two feet from the 
ground. It was asmall hole in a beech, plastered around 
with the customary mud, and lined with flakes of Scotch fir 
bark. I took note of another beech tree in which a small 
crack or crevice had been filled with mud, evidently by a 
Nuthatch, but for what purpose I cannot divine, as it was 
far too small for a nest. There was a Starling’s nest under- 
neath it. A similarity in breeding habits often brings the 
Starling and Nuthatch into juxtaposition. I have seen 
holes which were alternately the property of Starlings, 
Nuthatches, and Bats. One such was ina large ash tree 
at Braconash; and in,a second hole in the same tree I 
caught the Barn Owl and Stock Dove. 
At Hethel I have found and taken the egg of the Nut- 
hatch from a hole ina brick wall; and I am credibly in- 
