Its Picturesque Nest. 1 1 3 



grasses, chickweeds, polygonums, and other such weeds ; also, 

 in summer, when food is needed for the young, insects and larvae. 



The winter congregations break up in April, and then the 

 yellow-hammer begins to think of family joys and cares. But, 

 unlike their relations the sparrows and finches, the he-birds take 

 everything quietly, without having their little skirmishes to 

 show their spirit and prowess, like the knights of old, at the 

 tournament, before the admiring ladies. The yellow-hammer 

 does everything quietly, choosing his m,ate in an orderly way ; 

 and now that the buds are swelling on the trees, the primroses 

 gemming the hedge-banks, and the golden catkins hanging on 

 the willows by the watersides, hither come the little yellow- 

 hammers, and, having selected some sweet, hidden spot, under 

 a bush, or on the fieldy banks amongst the thick herbage — we 

 see it a month later in our picture, when the buds have ex- 

 panded into leaves, in a wild growth of beautiful grasses and 

 herbage — begin to make their nest. How picturesque it is ! 

 William Hunt never painted anything more beautiful The 

 nest itself is somewhat large, and of simple construction, woven 

 externally of coarse bents and small pliant twigs, and lined 

 with hair and wool. Here the hen lays four or five eggs of a 

 purplish white, marked with dark, irregular streaks, often re- 

 sembling musical notes. 



These poor little birds are extremely attached to their home 

 and their young, so much so, that if these be taken by the piti- 

 less bird-nester, they will continue for some days about the place 

 uttering the most melancholy plaint, which, though still to the 

 same old tune as the song of their spring rejoicing, has now the 

 expression of the deepest woe. 



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