176 • 



THE TAWNY OWL. 



however, of a hammer and a chisel applied to the* 

 spot, you are soon let into the secret ; and you find 

 the wood, in the quarter where the fungus appeared, 

 of a texture soft and altered, and somewhat ap- 

 proaching to that of cork. Here, then, you can 

 readilv form an excavation large enough to contain 

 a pair of tawny owls. 



In the year 1831, I pointed out to Mr. Ord (the 

 elegant and scientific biographer of poor Wilson)c 

 just such an ash tree as that which I have described. 

 It was above 2 ft. in diameter, and there was a fungus 

 on the western side of it. After I had excavated 

 nearly half-way through the tree, I found a portion 

 of the wood more tainted than the rest : so, putting 

 a longer handle into the socket of the chisel, I 

 worked in the direction which it took; until, most 

 unexpectedly, I came to the nest of a titmouse. 

 The bird, like the Portuguese at Mindanao, had 

 evidently taken possession of the tenement through 

 an aperture from the eastward, now closed up with 

 livmg bark ; while I, like the Spaniards, had arrived 

 at the same place, by pursuing a course from the 

 westward. If I might judge by the solid appearance 

 of the bark, I should say that, some fifty or sixty 

 years ago, a branch must have been blown off from 

 this eastern side of the bole ; and there the rain 

 had found an entrance, and had gradually formed a 

 cavity. The titmouse, judging it a convenient place, 

 had chosen it for her nidification ; and, probably, 

 had resorted to i«t every year, until the growing 

 wood at the mouth of the orifice had contracted the 

 entrance, and, at last, closed it up for ever : leaving 



