One day I discovered a song-thrush sitting on her nest hi the cart-shed, and upon putting her oft', ascertained that she had five fine large young ones. I immediately retired to watch her, through my field-classes, feeding them. It was not long before she returned with a supply of worms, which she distributed with commendable impartiality amongst her hungry offspring. Instead, however, of going off in search of more, she sat down and covered her chicks with a look of supreme maternal contentment. By-and-by along came her mate with a quantity of food, and she rose and stood on the edge of the nest and watched him administer it with her head cocked on one side. I was extremely anxious to get a study representing this last scene, so we fixed up the camera on a hay-elevator, which commanded a view of the nest, and hid it with straw and its operator also in the body of an old cart close by. He actually succeeded in making a picture of the two parent-birds at the nest, as described above; but unfortunately his view and that of the camera were from somewhat different points, and instead of the photograph showing what we wanted, it

THRUSH FEEDING YOUNG.

revealed only the back of the male and part of the breast of the female. We afterwards made several studies with one of the parent birds at the nest, as shown on the previous page.

In the ordinary course of things a thrush is a very easy bird to photograph, provided the naturalist and his apparatus be well hidden, for it is a bird of much deliberation, and will stand listening for minutes together.

Although I fondly imagined that this particular thrush's nest was out of the reach of feline robbers, it was discovered, and one of the farm hands, upon seeing a cat run away from the place, looked to see whether the fledglings were safe, and found some of their remains upon the hay-elevator.

A pied female blackbird had lived all the winter and spring in and about the paddock where the great tits bred, and we were very anxious to find her nest, with a view to photographing her from our tree-trunk. In due time we found it in a hedgerow on the far side of the paddock, and about a hundred yards from the farmhouse. It contained one egg. When four had been laid, and the bird had sat upon them for thirteen days and no chicks appeared, I began to fear that her abnormal appearance had perhaps prevented her from securing a mate. I was greatly desirous of saving the situation, in order that we might photograph her in the act of feeding her young ones, so went off and fetched an egg that was just

PIEI) 1JLACKBIKU FEEDING HEH CHICKS.

chipping from another blackbird's nest and put it in. Two days afterwards I visited her and found five hungry little creatures in the nest, one of which was a wee bit bigger and stronger than the rest. We fixed up our tree-trunk, and very soon had a series of studies of her feeding her children, one of which is reproduced on page 67.

TAVO days after this my brother happened to be passing, and thought he would take a peep at the nest to see how things were going forward, as he heard a blackbird's alarm note ringing out near the spot. To his annoyance, the cat which had given us so much trouble elsewhere leapt out from the hedgerow immediately beneath the nest, and the young birds were quite cold and weak. He returned half an hour afterwards, to find the mother on the nest, but next day the chicks were all dead. This was on the 20th of April, and what follows is extremely interesting on account of the certainty with which it proves the short-lived character of a bird's grief, and the limited nature of the wanderings of a species. I found the same bird on the 30th sitting on a clutch of four eggs not fifty yards away in the same hedgerow. On the 12th of May two of her young ones had come out, and she ultimately succeeded in bringing off all four in safety. Her first nest had been in a very exposed place, and she was extremely shy whilst brooding; but her second was situated in a very thick bit of it that Iwhitethorn, and she sat so closely upon

had my face within twelve inches of her, and could see the white feathers of her face all soiled and dirty by coming in contact with the mould when catching worms. I begged the sparing of her life of more than one man who was desirous of seeing her behind a glass-case; and I hope, but I fear vainly, that she will live to build more nests and yield interesting facts to other students of Nature.

This, so far as I could ascertain, was the end of the mischief done by the cats, and I believe it was all perpetrated by the same animal a dissipated-looking brown Thomas, which I saw one day on the roof of a high barn, trying, but fortunately without success, to rake out some young starlings from their nest under the tiles.

A heavy percentage of the other birds named as being found breeding within five hundred yards of a Greater London farmhouse were robbed by carrion-crows and boys. I was always taught in my young days, on well-kept Yorkshire grouse-moors, to believe that crows were very shy birds; but have since discovered that that depends very much upon the way their numbers are kept down by game-preserving. A friend of mine not long ago started out one fine spring morning from High Barnet across the fields, and from there to Shenley took no less than eighteen clutches of eggs belonging to this species. Last May a pair succeeded in building a nest, rearing and actually carrying off a brood from an orchard near to Elstree.

Carrion-crows are the Dick Turpins of the feathered world, and woe betide the small bird that builds its nest in an exposed situation anywhere in the neighbourhood of Elstree! During my residence in the district I do not think I can call to mind one instance of a moorhen succeeding in hatching off her first clutch of eggs. The species has to depend for its perpetuation on the growth of reeds and rushes which the old birds bend over their nests and thus hide their eggs. I knew a case of a bird building and laying twice in a pond this last spring, and having each nest promptly robbed by the crows. By the time she was ready to make a third attempt the reeds had grown sufficiently tall for her to bend them down, and so screen her treasure-house from inquisitive eyes above. In this way she succeeded in bringing off a brood. I often watched these chicks from behind a thorn-bush growing on the bank of the pond, and one day caught four out of five of them by what, if they could have been consulted upon the matter, they would no doubt have considered a mean little trick. As soon as they had come out from their hiding-places amongst the rushes fringing one side of the pond, I struck a bit of barbed wire in front of me with my stick, and the rattle of it sent them all scuttling back again. Making a mental note of where two of their number disappeared, I walked round and caught them and put them in my cap, where they protested loudly against bondage. As

I lay in hiding for the other three, I became aware of strange sounds proceeding from a little reed-bed on my right hand, where I knew one of their parents, at any rate, to be in hiding. It was just like a horse eating hay, and kept on in response to the calls of the youngsters in my cap. In a I said,while I was joined by my brother, to whom ? " After listening" Hark! do you hear anything a while he said, " Yes." " What does it sound like? " I asked.

"A horse munching hay," he answered.

I have no doubt whatever but that it was made by a moorhen, for when we released the young ones and they ceased to call and disappeared amongst the reeds, the munching sound stopped.

A HIGHLAND COTTEK S HUT.

CHAPTER IV.

BIRDS (continued).

DURING heavy showers of rain the females of many species hasten back with what food they have collected and, giving it to their young ones, sit down upon the nest, and spreading out their wings, allow the falling water to trickle harmlessly away outside the structure. This is often a good opportunity for obtaining a photographic study of them, although I have known my brother fail to make a picture through a lack of sufficient light, and the fact that the little crowd of protected fledglings were constantly heaving their mother's form or popping their inquisitive beaks from beneath her breast. Last spring I was desirous of studying some of the ground-builders, and having photographs taken of them at close quarters in the act of feeding their young, so I conceived the notion of making the artificial rubbish-heap described in Chapter I. for purposes of hiding in. As soon as we had completed it we fixed it up at five o'clock one Saturday morning some eight or ten yards away from a skylark's nest, in the middle of a bare

ten-acre field. In the afternoon we moved it up to within three feet, and retired inside with the camera. In a few minutes along came the lark, and hovering over her chicks for a few seconds, like a toy-bird suspended on the end of a bit of elastic, called to them in twittering notes, at which signal of her presence they all shot up their heads and opened their orange-coloured mouths ridiculously wide. She quickly alighted, and running up gave each a small worm, which she appeared to fetch from the back of her throat. Generally, one of the worms which she brought was visible in her bill, but this was by no means always the case. When she had distributed her supply of food she waited for a moment, and then, thrusting her head into the depths of the nest, attended to its sanitary arrangements and flew away. I watched out of a hole on one side of the lens, and my brother out of one on the other. There was a strong breeze blowing at the time, and the lark always flew down it on her way to search for more food, and faced it on coming back. She heralded her return every time by a twittering call that was answered by her offspring, which she fed on an average once every quarter of an hour. Her brood was nearly ready to fly, and one of them, stronger and bolder than the rest, ran out of his little cup- shaped home and took up his station some fifteen yards away. When his mother returned she discovered him, and alighting

where he was gave him something to eat, and then proceeded to feed the rest of her children. I crawled out and brought the little wanderer back, and then returned to my hiding-place. When the mother came back again she alighted where her venturesome chick had hopped to, and after

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