224 
NATURE NOTES 
445. The Lining of a Long-Tailed Tit's Nest. — Early in May I 
found the nest of a long-tailed tit, in a bunch of brambles. Putting my finger 
inside I felt that it was nearly full of rain-water with several eggs at the bottom, 
cold and forsaken. I took the nest home and found it was so thickly lined with 
feathers as to be perfectly water-tight. After pouring out half a basin of water 
and taking out eleven eggs, I took out the lining and counted the number of 
feathers of which it consisted, and found that these reached a total of nine 
hundred and fifty-two. All were feathers of common barndoor fowls, and as the 
nearest farmhouse was nearly half a mile away from the site of the nest, it is easy 
to calculate that the industrious little builders must have travelled a total distance 
to and from the nest of about 900 miles to secure them. This assumes that the 
birds only fetched one feather at a time, but as I have often observed them with 
two or three feathers at a time in their bills, this distance is probably three times 
too much. It is still enough, however, to make one pause before aimlessly 
“ collecting ” a structure upon which such infinite pains have been expended. 
Robert H. Read. 
446. Wasps’ Nests. — A letter to our Editor on the subject of wasps 
which appeared in the November number of Nature Notes, has reminded me 
of a recent holiday which I spent at a farm-house near Cold Ash, in Berkshire. 
Photograph by IV. Lawrence . ] 
A Wasp’s Nest, Uncovered. 
During my stay, the number of wasps which made their appearance was very 
large. They caused great inconvenience by their constant attendance at meal 
times, and the fruit in the orchard suffered from their depredations. Several 
visitors were stung, and in an adjacent wheat-field, a square of corn had to be 
left standing because the horses attached to the reaping machine were attacked 
by the occupants of a nest built in the ground. As a matter of fact no less than 
seven other nests were discovered in the hedge-rows and banks of the orchard 
and s'ack-yard. It was therefore decided to destroy some of them, including 
the one in the wheat-field. This was dune by placing a piece of cyanide of 
potassium, after dusk, well into the entrance of the nest, and covering it up 
