38 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
within certain limits from time to time. At the present 
moment, on the north side, near the point of a gable, is a nest 
built against one slope of woodwork, and the rough, cast-wall 
below it. This nest has an oblique, rough-edged entrance, 
following the line of the eaves. Another nest was built touching 
it with an opening in another direction, but, being much 
exposed to wind and weather, it tumbled down. In another 
gable nests are built every year, and fall sooner or later from 
wind and rain. The new nests in this situation have not been 
exact repetitions of the old ones, but somewhat broader at the 
base, and with an entrance differently arranged. The birds do 
not choose to leave this place, but they have not yet succeeded 
in making a nest to last long, though they may be said to 
be improving. 
On the east side of the house, under the projecting roof, 
there are now two nests attached to each other, side by side. 
The first built had a roundish hole for an entrance on the 
right-hand side, just under the woodwork. The second nest 
has its entrance on the left side of its curve, not close to 
the woodwork like the former, but provided with a slightly 
thickened and projecting rim. Another nest may be roughly 
likened to a big convex oyster shell, stuck up under a hori- 
zontal part of the projecting roof, and open all along the top, 
with a rough edge. This has been a very common form of nest 
for three or four years in several situations. 
At the point of a southern gable a nest was made this year 
attached to the right-hand slope of the woodwork as well as to 
the wall, showing a large sloping opening on that side. 
Two nests are fixed side by side, and attached under the 
projecting window of an upper room, and in the top corner of 
the window of the room below. When the first nest was built, 
cats used to sit on the window-sill and look longingly at its 
inhabitants. This did not trouble the birds — they had ap- 
parently satisfied themselves that it would be too awkward a 
jump for pussy to succeed in, and up to the present they have 
been right. So tame are the birds when building, and so 
satisfied of protection, that they did not show any anxiety when 
workmen were close by them coating the walls with a silica 
preparation, some of which was washed over their unfinished 
nest. 
The second of these attached nests was made this year. It 
is much larger than the first, and has a different sort of en- 
trance. The way into the first nest is by a round hole just in 
the middle and at the top of its convex curve. The second one 
is entered by a large irregular aperture in the left-hand corner, 
being a space left in the construction, by not carrying the edge 
of the nest at that place up to the wall of the house. This 
