Birds. 5753 



managed to gulp clown, and before night had sufficiently recovered to admit of its being 

 regularly fed, and replaced in the nest in a warm room, where it passed the night. In 

 the morning it was found to be not only still alive, but strong and well, crying out 

 most lustily for its breakfast. It is, I think, worthy of remark that so young a bird 

 should, under the adverse circumstances detailed, have survived ; probably the young 

 of few other species could have done so. It would appear from this nest not having 

 been blown down, also from what has been elsewhere stated on the subject, that there 

 is much risk and uncertainty attending their building in trees, particularly in exposed 

 situations, so much so that one would at first be inclined to set the sparrow down as 

 wanting both in " reason and instinct." But when one reflects what a persecuted bird 

 the poor house sparrow is, and how frequently its nest is taken and the young de- 

 stroyed, both by man and beast, when placed either in holes about houses and other 

 buildings, or in the ivy on the walls, one cannot be greatly surprised at their occasion- 

 ally, at least, preferring to trust there progeny to the vicissitudes of the elements rather 

 than to the mercy of man, or their still more deadly enemy, Grimalkin ; but strange, 

 though true, it is that cats do not climb trees in quest of nestlings, at least I never ob- 

 served them doing so ; and although there are at the present moment several sparrows' 

 nests in the garden I have never remarked cats, although they are frequently to be 

 seen prowling about, even attempting to get at them, though the chirping of the 

 young birds cannot, I should think, fail to be heard by them. I will now endeavour 

 to describe the nest, which is both bulky and inelegant. It is of an oval form, convex 

 above, concave beneath, in circumference lengthwise 24f inches, breadthwise 20, depth 

 6. Internally it is oval, and 3^ inches in width in the centre. The bottom of the 

 nest is indented by the impression of the branch on which it rested : upper part slightly 

 projecting over the opening, which is of a circular form, placed at the large end, and 

 in size little more than sufficient to admit of the free ingress and egress of the old 

 birds. The concavity is made to slope downwards at once from the entrance, from 

 which the young bird seems to shrink with instinctive dread, for I find it a difficult 

 matter to draw it up, as it clings with the greatest tenacity to the lower part and sides 

 of the nest, and when released turning itself immediately round and retreating to the 

 bottom. The outside of the nest is composed principally of hay, grass, and a little 

 straw, intermixed with roots of different kinds, as well as twigs, rose-leaves matted 

 together, a long piece of black worsted, bits of red worsted, matting, shavings, tape, 

 bark of tree, two pieces of playing cards, stalks of flowers and plants, buttercup, moss, 

 &c. (But the inside is chiefly lined with featheis, wool and paper: of the latter there 

 is a great variety ; among the rest a piece of a printed notice of a sermon to be preached 

 in the parish church, scraps of a Latin exercise, bits of newspaper, blue paper, also 

 some of my own handwriting, bits of blue and brown braid, plaid and blue cloth, wor- 

 sted twist, tissue paper, cotton, thread, rope, swan's-down, flock, horse-hair, dog's or 

 cat's-hair, rags, weeds, strings, rabbit's fur, &c, and a piece of the plan of Sebastopol. 

 June 18. — The gale still continues, although somewhat abated. Another sparrow's- 

 nest was blown down to-day: it contained only one egg entire, but there were several 

 pieces strewn about. This nest is somewhat more elongated than the former one, and 

 is remarkable for the quantity of strings and threads intermixed with the other mate- 

 rials, measuring in the whole about 90 feet ; there are also considerably more feathers 

 but less paper than in the old nest. It measures in circumference lengthwise about 

 29 inches, breadthwise 19, and is 6 inches in depth. A needle having two feet of 

 thread attached to it was found in the nest, which, like the other, is chiefly composed 

 XV. 3 G 



