Open hedges and bramble bushes are patronised by Yellow Hammers, which may always be known ])y their alarm note trit trit disturbed. trit—when Chaflinches sleep in hedgerows, but we have met with surprisingly few at night-time, even in districts where they were ])articularly numerous by day, although we have sought carefull}' and long.

We have found Kobins and Hedge Sparrows roosting in laurel bushes, boxwood trees, and ever-

greens of other kinds, and have been surprised to meet with them close to the ground, sometimes on a ^Yindy night. Ivy growing against liouses, rocks, and round trees, Scotch firs in large woods, and the reed-beds of marshlands, are all beloved of Starlings for roosting in. I have met with them in high old thorn hedges in summer-time, and remember once hearing a flock chirruping and whistling in a clump of ash trees at eleven o'clock at night during the month of August just as gaily as if it had been the same hour in the morning. That some birds sleep in their old nests in winter-time, and others utilise those made by a different species, we have proved beyond a doubt during our nocturnal investigations. House Sparrows constantly sleep in their old nests, and foul them terribly during the time they are used as bed-chambers. When they have paired in the early spring, and before family cares have commenced, the male and female often roost together in the same hole. They are the most sagacious birds in the world, and can adaj^t themselves with ease to almost any combination of circumstances. I have watched them go to roost behind sign-boards, in holes under roofs, and in walls, in evergreens overhanging much-frequented thoroughfares on the outskirts of London, holes in hayricks, amongst ivy growing against walls and round trees, holes made by themselves in old thatched roofs, bare field hedgerows, and in their own nests. They sleep during the winter months in a nuaiber of boxes fixed by a lady in our neighbourhood to the trees in her grounds, for the Tits to breed in. Most naturalists have observed the habit House Sparrows have of picking up straws and feathers in the

autumn, and flying olt' with them as if on nest-building intent, and concluded that the Ijirds were repairing their old nests, a habit well known of Ivooks. I think I can claim to have made an interesting discovery in regard to this matter, viz. that Sparrows so engaged are prei)aring for themselves warm winter quarters or a COCK SPARROW. means of more effectual hiding.

During March, 1897, I examined the eaves of a thatch covering a cart-shed, the side walls of which were about live feet in height. The Sparrows had cut holes from six to twelve inches deep in the roof, starting under the eaves and following the upward trend of the straws, and in three separate instances these holes were lined with feathers and had a collection of drop- NESTING-BOX. pings on their outer edges. 'Die })resenc(' of the feathers pii/zled nu^ considerably, for L was certain that the species never bred in the thatch on account of its ver}' easily accessible position and the fact that I had examined

SPARROW CATCHERS.

it regTilaily for years during tlio spring and sununer niontlis for AYrens' nests. 1 went round after dark with my l)ull's-eye lantern, and found each feather-lined cavity tenanted by a male House Sparrow. I also found another male and two females, and a Wren, in holes not lined with anything. On the same farmstead I watched a number of Sparrows to bed in some holes they had made for themselves in the end of a hayrick, and upon investigation, one of these contained a lining of feathers, although I had o'ood reason for believing that it had never been used as a nest. It seems strange that one member of a s})ecies should make for itself such comfortable quarters, whilst another is so indifferent to the most intense cold as to sit in a leatless hedgerow all night. The fact is, that, although the animal world is largely governed by hereditary intelligence, there is really no such dead level of unreasoning instinct abroad as is popularly supposed. The lower animals differ as much from each other in the same species relatively as men and women; but these differences are often so subtle, and their habits in a wild state so little known, that they escape all but the very closest observers.

My investigations lead me to believe that the majority of male House Sparrows take to the open hedsres and trees to roost in whilst their mates are brooding; however, a few of them are true to their old quarters in lioles under eaves, thatch, and in ricks. Tits roost under thatch, and in hok's in the sides of ricks, and in one or two instances we have met with them in okl Wrens' nests. I have heard it said that the male Long-tailed Tit sleeps in the nest with the female, but unfortunately I have been prevented from putting this assertion to the

test, on account of the fact that the nests I have had under observation have been cut out and taken away before the female had begun to sit.

That birds of different species will upon occasion roost together we have proved by taking a Sparrow and a Wren from the same hole in the end of a haystack at night-time.

FULLY-FLEDGED SWALLOWS SLEEPING IN OLD NEST.

{I'lwtograiJhed by Magnesium, Flashlight.)

Swallows sleep on beams in barns where they l)reed, and when molested flutter from one place to another without making any serious attempt to leave the building. AYe have examined sheds, however, in which were nests full of large young ones without meeting with a single old bird either on them or the surroundino; timbers. I have watched them ffo to roost in Scotch firs and the branches of trees overhanging ponds; and their going to rest in flocks amongst the reeds growing on Thames eyots is

one of the sights of the river before the birds take their departure south. Late hist September I watched a brood of fully-liedged Swallows go to roost in their old nest, and my brother pliotograi)lied them by flashlight from the toj) of a long ladder.

If left undisturbed, many birds will roost night after night in the same place, and often upon one })articular branch. Last winter we tried several times to photograph a female blackbird in a hawthorn bush as she sat upon an old nest belonging to her species, but in vain: the branches and small twigs were too thick for us to accomplish the making of a picture. Pheasants are sometimes very partial to a l)articular bough for roosting upon; and if any accident, such as the blowing down or felling of the tree to which it belongs, should deprive them of it, they wander round, showing signs of great concern over their loss. Tree-perching birds occasionally live in places where they experience considerable difficulty in finding a natural roost. In the summer of 1895 my brother and I found ourselves stranded for a little while at Tarbert Harris in the Western Isles of Scotland, and whilst out for a stroll one evening heard a Cuckoo crying his name aloud upon a craggy hillside. I expressed some wonder as to where he slc2)t in such a wilderness of rocks, and was told that he came regularly every night to roost amongst some shrubs growing in the minister's little garden. IJavens sleep on ledges and jutting crags in precipices, and are reuiarkable for their acuteness of hearing. I knew an old gamekeeper iu the North of England who used to hide during the

afternoon in a cave situated at the foot of a scaur frequented by these birds, and when it got fairlv dark he took off his boots and crept steahliilv along until he came to the part directly beneath where they usually roosted. In this way he secured one now and again by an overhead shot as the birds, which he alarmed by making an intenti(jnal noise, ilew away outlined against the sky. His best efforts were, however, often frus-trated by the accidental rattle of a stone beneath his feet, startling the Ravens from their slumbers long before he got within gunshot.

Wild Ducks, being night feeders, generally sleep between ten and eleven o'clock in the morning on a bank or in the water of some secluded j^ond, lake, or broad. It is said that the way a duck sleeps on a body of water without being drifted ashore in breezy weather is by keeping one foot tucked up and unconsciously paddling with the other. This has the eifect of making the bird describe small circles, but I cannot understand why it does not lose ground at the completion of each, in the same way that a soaring bird does in the air by drifting slowly to leeward.

I do not know whether the sexes of such wild birds as are quite outside the influence of game-preserving balance each other with any degree of exactitude of numbers in all species, but I am assured by several Sparrow-catchers that they generally take more males than females, and this assertion is certainly borne out by the l)ags of two men whom I accomjjanied on their visits to ricks, evergreens, and hedges on three separate occasions. On the first night they caught twenty-seven birds, consisting of seventeen males and ten females; on the second, six, comprising four males and two

females; and on the third, tifteen, made up of nine males and six females.

While at St. Kilda in the sunmier of 1896, I noticed that the male members of a colony of Kittiwakes breeding on the Doon slept on the same sheltered i)iece of rock every night, and were, like many land birds I have kept under observation in similar circumstances, very punctilious about going to roost. They would alight on the rock, and, after resting for a few minutes, all rise into the air, uttering their familiar notes with vehement clamour whilst they took a short flight over Village Bay. This kind of exercise they repeated several times over before finally retiring to rest. At the same })lace the Great Black-backed Gulls used to betake themselves to an isolated rock called Lavenish every evening to sleep, but were back again by daydawn each morning to scrutinise the beach for food. I do not know ^^'llen Terns sleep, but am persuaded that they indulge in very little, for whilst staying on the Fame Islands last summer I used to hear the colony of Sandwich, Arctic, and Common Terns nuiking as much clamour and din betvv^een eleven and twelve o'clock at night as they did at the same time during the day. I think there is every reason for believing that numy members of the Gull family sleep upon the sea even during the jjreeding season, for in the beginning of Juno I have observed both Herring and Lesser i)lack Backs beyond the Dogger l^ank at the first ])ee]) of day assiduously examining the fishermen's nets. I am aware, however, th:,t they fly by night in summer-time at any rate, for I have seen tlieni come and aliiiht close beside nu'

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