60 NESTING BOXES, ETC. 



distance, a footstep approaching and flutter twit- 

 tering about a neighbouring tree, very anxious in 

 mind, till the cause of alarm has passed away. 



"A Wryneck laid its eggs in one of the boxes. A 

 Eedstart had built its nest^in a box with a large 

 mouth and hatched its ugly little chickens, when 

 one day we found the young about outside on the 

 ground, dead or dying and the nest half pulled out. 

 Thinking that some heartless boy had done the 

 deed we restored the remnants to the box; but next 

 day the whole of the nest was on the ground and 

 all the young Redstarts dead. A few days after a 

 white egg was laid in the extreme corner of the box 

 on the bare boards, and others followed before we 

 had found out what sort of a bird had laid them. 

 Lifting the lid noiselessly one day, I found a 

 Wryneck sitting on the eggs. On seeing me, she 

 fled, using, I am sorry to say, extremely bad language 

 as she retired. The young Wrynecks, when hatched, 

 were queer little birds, with inordinately long necks, 

 much longer than they could properly manage; and 

 as the young birds moved about in the nest their 

 necks became inextricably twisted and it was im- 

 possible to tell which head belonged to which bird. 

 As the bodies became larger the necks shortened 

 and the tangle gradually unwound, so that before 



