Her Defe7ice of her Young. 



123 



clay or mud, leaving only just room enough for herself to enter. 

 Perhaps she may be afraid of the old tenants returning and 

 again taking possession, so builds up a little defence in front ; 

 but of that I cannot say ; certain it is she makes herself com- 

 fortably at home in rather an untidy nest, composed mostly of 

 dead oak-leaves, and here she lays six or seven white eggs, 

 with ruddy spots on them. 



If the plaster wall be by any chance removed, the poor bird 

 loses not a moment in replacing it ; and though she has ap- 

 parently great dread of any enemy — the woodpecker, snake, 

 man, or whatever else he may be, disturbing her— yet so faith- 

 fully devoted is she to her duties, that scarcely anything will in- 

 duce her to leave the eggs or young. She fights vigorously in 

 defence of her home and its treasures, striking out with her bill 

 and wings, and making a hissing, angry noise. Nay, timid and 

 shy as she naturally is, she will suffer herself to be carried off 

 captive rather than desert her charge. 



Let me conclude with one of Bechstein's anecdotes of the 

 nuthatch : — 



" A lady amused herself in the winter by throwing seeds on 

 the terrace, below the window, to feed the birds in the neigh- 

 bourhood. She put some hemp-seed and cracked nuts even on 

 the window-sill, and on a board, for her particular favourites, 

 the blue-tits. Two nuthatches came one day to have their share 

 of this repast, and were so well pleased that they became quite 

 familiar, and did not even go away in the following spring to 

 get their natural food and to build their nest in the wood. They 

 settled themselves in the hollow of an old tree near the house. 

 " As soon as the two young ones which were reared here were 



