Young Peewits have a peculiar habit when caught and released of stooping gracefully every few yards they run away, and making what appears to be a very pretty curtsey in return for their deliverance. Similar antics are practised by adult birds of this species pretending, when under observation, of Avhicli they are conscious, to pick up bits of food where there is every reason for believing none really exists. 1 know of no prettier sight than that afforded by watching at close quarters a pair of shy birds feeding their young without the slightest suspicion of being under observation. They do their work then with an easy deliberation and linger over the nest and its prec-ious contents with a thousand signs of parental ])ride and dec]) natural affection.

On Good Friday, 1807, I found a ]^lackl)ird's nest, containing three young ones, situat(Hl in a very tliiii ojxMi hedgerow running parallel with the outer wall of an old wooden cart-shed some four feet awm'. I marked a j)lace directly ()})posite and on a level with it, and going inside the structure, cut a circular

hole with my pocket-knife in one of the boards for the admission of the lens of my brother's camera, and a smaller one a few inches above it for purposes of observation. AYhen we had g(jt everything ready to take a

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yf!:^:,*: , ' i \

:#:.

YOUNG PEEWIT.

photograph, we had not long to wait before the female turned up with her bill full of medium-sized worms. She alighted on a branch about a yard away from the nest, and after listening intently for a few seconds with her head cocked on one side, hopped up. She had no sooner arrived on the edge of her nest than each downy little head popped up with the suddenness of a jack in the box, and each richly coloured mouth opened to its

uttermost extent to receive an equal share of the food the parent bird had broiio-ht.

Directly this was consumed they all subsided, and the old bird attended to the sanitary arrano'e-ments of her household, and then iiow away in search of more food. Presently the cock came along- with a large worm which he had carefully chopped into several l^ieces ready for impartial distriljution amongst his promising offspring. He, too, seemed to regard cleanliness with a scrupulous eye, and after doing his share of the necessary work, he retired to a neighbouring elm tree and piped a few mellow notes. When the hen returned again a heavy shower of rain was falling, and after she had distributed her harvest of worms she hopped into the nest, and Imstling about a while with gentle care for the chicks beneath her, settled down with her Avings spread over the sides of her nest to allow the rain drops to run off, and the happiest look of security and contentment about her I ever saw in any bird in my life. Her head, back, wings, and tail were covered with great crystal beads of water, which rolled down and away like quicksilver in obedience to the laws of gravitation directl}' they received the weight of an additional drop of rain. AVe managed, in spite of a very poor light, to make a photograi)h of her in this condition, as shown in the bottom left-hand corner of the combination page of illustrations. When the shower was over the cock came along with a fresh sup})ly of food, and the hen immediately hopped olf and stood on the edge of the nest and watched him feed the young ones. It was a sweetly pretty picture, and my brother has

BLACKBIRDS AT HOME.

regretted ever since the iiiifortiinate circumstance that he was changing- his slides at the moment. He waited nearly the whole of Easter Sunday and Monday for a similar scene, but it never presented itself. The hen fed the young birds twice for the cock once. Indeed, the latter often came to gaze in admiration at his chicks, and showed every signs of the fond ])ride of an affectionate father.

I believe 1 am in a position to boast what very few ornithologists can. I have helped birds to build their nests, hatch their eggs, and feed their young. When a boy I used to collect feathers and amuse myself by dropping them from the top of a bridge and watching the Swallows and Martins catch and carry them away for use in lining their nests. I have kept birds' eggs warm in my hands during the enforced absence of the sitting hen, and have placed suitable food beside birds' nests and watched them pick it u}) and give it to their youngs ones. Even where a great amount of hard work is entailed in feeding a hungry brood of young ones, some female birds do not receive any assistance from the males. At the end of last May I found a Chiffchaff's nest, containing five young ones, at the foot of a tiny thorn bush growing in an old copse near my home. I ke})t it under close observation a whole day, and made (juite sure that the male bird did not render the slightest assistance, although the female worked almost incessantly from morning-till night. I was able to identif}' lier with certainty from the fact that one of her under tail coverts had by some accident become bent upwards^ and i)rojected between the quills on tlu^ vipper side of her tail. I timed lier upon m' watch on several occasions, both (hiring the forenoon mid at'tenioon,

CHIFFCHAFF FEEDING HER YOUNG.

218

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

and found that upon an average she brought caterpillars and flies four times in five minutes, and on the occasion of each visit spent from ten to fifteen seconds in attending to the sanitary arrangements of her little establishment. Most birds are very

NIGHTINGALE ON NEST.

particular about this part of their duties, and I have known a Robin refuse to fetch grubs to her young ones until she had been allowed an opportunity of cleansing the edge of her nest. Contrary to popular notions, this is a perfectly cleanly operation, as each piece of excrement voided by a young bird is enveloped in a thin gelatinous sack, sufficiently

WHITETHROAT ON NEST.

consistent to allo^y the parent bird to remove the whole without the shghtcst fear of contamination.

Whilst the female Chiffchaff was hard at work, the male kept on wearisomely reiterating his note first from one branch and then from another overhead. I caught several small, light green caterj^illars and troublesome flies, and placing them on the edge of the nest, knelt down, and waited within five feet of it. By remaining perfectly still until she had flown backwards and forwards past me several times, I established myself in her confidence, and she went to her nest and fed her young ones. As soon as she had disposed of the supply of food which she had brought herself, she picked up mine and distributed it as far as it would go amongst her more than half-grown sons and daughters. 1 repeated the assistance again and again, and it appeared on each occasion to be appreciated. Once only during the afternoon did the industrious little creature take a rest for about half an hour. ^My brother made a study of her in front of her nest, but owing to the peculiar conformation of the ground and the extreme (juickness of the bird's movements, the result does not show everything as plainly as we could have desired. Close l)y we discovered a Marsh Tit's nest, containing a huddling crowd of almost fully-feathered fledgelings, situated in a hole in the trunk of a tree, and not more than four feet I'rom the ground. TIk^ male and female were both hard at work feeding their young ones, '^l^hey always went away for food together and returiu'd in each other's compan}' with a harvest of small, light green cater- ])illars. If they became separated for a moment, they called to one another in notes which could be heard at a surprising distance. AVhen near the

nest and waiting to enter it, they let their wings droop h)w by their sides, and shook them in the tremuhjus manner so connnon to young birds of many species when being fed after they have left the nest. I have noticed the same lialnt in other members of the Tit family.

YOUNG SPOTTED FLYCATCHERS.

Although within a comparatively short distance of London, T found the following birds' nests all within iifty yards of each other, and containing eggs or young in this little co])se: Carrion Crow, Red-backed Shrike, Nightingale, Whitethroat, P)lack-bird, ^farsh Tit, Tree Sj)arro\v, (N)nnu()n WnMi, and Cliill'chaff. During the |)art of our liohdays which we spent in Westmorland in llie snnnner of 1(S1I7, mv brother

discovered a lUiie Tit\s nest in a hollow bircli tree; and Avliilst lie was trying' to pliotoiirapli the old

YOUNG WOOD WRENS.

birds going in and out of the hole leading- to it, I found a Spotted Flycatcher's nest not fifteen yards away in one direction, and a Wood Wren's less

VOUNG BLUE TIT.

than ten in another. A curious circumstance was that they all three contained young ones, which upon being disturbed instantly took flight.

On examining the last-named bird's nest I was surprised to find it swarming with ants, which

were running' about everywhere aniong-st the fine grass and horsehair with which it was lined. They must have been there before the young birds took their departure upon my looking into their little domed cradle, and how their disturbing presence could have been tolerated I cannot make out.

The Fly^catcher seldom went further than a dead branch projecting from a tall ash tree growing-close by her nest for food, which she seemed to allow to come to her and then snatch by a short fluttering excursion into the air. I timed her visits to her nest with food on several occasions during the day, and she never exceeded two in five minutes. I do not thiidv that she received any assistance whatever from her male companion, as I never saw him near the nest. On the other hand the cock Blue Tit helped the hen with a will, and they invariably came back from a raid on caterpillars together. About noon a bird entered the nesting hole twice in four minutes, but by six o'clock in the evening the rate of feeding had increased to six times in five minutes, that is, of course in each case counting the combined efforts of the parent birds. Whilst in the heart of Essex during the Whitsun holidays of 1897 we were shown a Jay's nest, situated in a young birch tree growing in a thick dark wood. In s])ite of a necessarily poor light, swarms of gnats, and the shyness of a very cunning-bird, my brother determined to try to make a photograph of her in the act of feeding her young, so we set to work and built a thick bower of branches, with just a small peep-hole for the lens of his camera, near the top of the side connnanding a view of the nest, and another some distance below it for })ur})oses of oljservation.

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