204 Peacock : The Birds of North- West Lindsey. 



taken its nest, though I have often known where they were. 

 The Vicar took it at Eastoft. Divs. i, 2, 3, 5, 

 Blue Titmouse. Parus caeruleus Linn. Common. In winter 

 its ways are wonderful. The little pugnacious beauties will 

 even drive off Blackbirds and Thrushes by sudden and 

 unexpected attacks, and seize upon their food. They are 

 specially fond of a grain of Indian maize from the fowl food. 

 The branch of the nearest bare tree forms a ready anvil 

 where the bird hammers away till a hole is drilled through 

 which the germ can be extracted. As soon as the ' bonne 

 bouche ' is swallowed, the corn is dropped, and the fearless 

 bird is among the fowls for another. A pair nested in 

 a farmhouse letter-box, and strongly objected to letters 

 being inserted through the slit. It was a most comical 

 sight to see the pair of birds pulling them out and throwing 

 them on to the ground, as they would do time after time 

 w T hen the letters were purposely put back, during the whole 

 work making a spitting sound in their anger. 



Nuthatch. Sitta cassia Wolf. Is rare at Bottesford. Saw 

 one 26th May 1879; killed another 10th August 1889. It 

 breeds in the Manby Woodlands. 



Wren. Troglodytes parvulus K.L.Koch. Is common. In 

 1885 I found a nest in an old cast-off boot in a hedge 

 bottom. The usual roosting nests for the growing young 

 were in the bank close by. In cold weather these birds 

 pack for warmth in all kinds of places, in their old nests if 

 in a warm snug corner, but especially in holes in stacks. 

 The Vicar and I observed over twenty-seven enter one hole 

 in a hay-rick one evening in 1875. 



Tree-Creeper. Certhia familiaris Linn. Is uncommon at 

 Bottesford. I saw it there in 1887, 1894, and 1895. It 

 breeds in the Manby Woodlands, and is found as far east 

 as Cadney and Somerby. ' It is not uncommon, but not 

 abundant at South Kelsey,' and 'not uncommon and nests 

 regularly about Claxby.' 



Pied Wagtail. Mo tacit la lugubris Temminck. Is very 

 common. Three nested within eighty yards in the Manor 

 House garden-wall, Bottesford, in 1882. 



Grey Wagtail. Motaci/la melanope Pall. Not at all un- 

 common during winter. From 1868 to 1875 ^ built on the 

 beck banks at Bottesford, but of late years I have never 

 seen it during the nesting season. 



Naturalist. 



