144 THE WORLD OF LIFE 



As every schoolboy knows, the number of nests is very great 

 to those who know how to look for them, some being found in 

 almost every wood, copse, or hedgerow. As examples, in a 

 small copse in Herts, nine different species of birds had nests 

 with young, all within 50 yards of each other. In another 

 case, nests of a tit, a flycatcher, and a wood-wren were found 

 within 10 to 15 yards of each other. In the case of many 

 small birds the whole period, from hatching the eggs to that 

 of the young leaving the nest is only two weeks, but swifts 

 require from a month to six weeks. 



It must be remembered that the birds carefully clean out 

 the nest after every meal, and in wet or very chilly weather 

 carefully protect their young, and as they must also procure 

 food for themselves, it is evident that their labours at this 

 time are really prodigious. And this vast destruction of in- 

 sect-life goes on unchecked for several months together, and 

 the supply never seems to fail. When the parent birds leave 

 the nest in search of food for their young, they may be seen 

 to fly to some adjacent bush or branch of a tree, hop rapidly 

 about it, and then perhaps fly off to another, having apparently 

 decided that the first one had already been nearly exhausted. 

 But in the few minutes of their absence they are always able 

 to fill their mouths with small caterpillars, flics, grubs, etc., 

 and return to the nest, not only from morning to night on one 

 day, but the same day after day, for at least a fortnight and 

 often much longer, till their first brood is fully fledged and 

 able to provide for themselves. But unless the numbers of 

 insects and their larvse were enormous, and were increased 

 day by day by fresh hatchings from the egg as fast as they 

 were devoured, hosts of these young birds would perish of 

 hunger and cold. For if the parents had to range far away 

 from their nests, and could not find the necessary supply so 

 quickly as they do, the young birds would be subject to attack 

 from some of their numerous enemies, would suffer from cold 

 or wet, and as they grew older would often, in their frantic 



