ge building, and
it is newer than the British Museum and not so gloomy. It is built of
different sorts of yellow brick, and has tall towers, and stands among
well-kept green lawns. When you go into the hall you see long galleries
stretching out on each side. In one there are most beautifully stuffed
birds of every sort you could name, and a great many you could not name.
All of these are set up in glass cases, with the flowers and grass or
bushes round that the birds choose to make their nests in when they are
alive. We can see here all the different ways that birds take to hide
their nests and young ones. Poor birds! they have so many enemies--the
weasel, who sucks their eggs; the cat, who loves to eat their young
ones; the birds larger than themselves, who prey upon them; and last,
but not least, the cruel boys who destroy the nests 'for fun,' and a
poor sort of fun it is.

There are two ways birds hide their nests: one by really hiding
them--that is to say, building them under a deep bank or in the thickest
part of a tree--and the other by making them so like their surroundings
that it is difficult to see them at all. You all know instances of the
first way; the second is not so common. But perhaps the commonest is the
plover, who just brings together a few straws on the mud of a field and
lays her eggs there without any protection; yet the eggs are so like the
mud-coloured surroundings that you might hunt for a long time, and even
walk over them without seeing them.

Down the middle of the room at the Museum are the more common British
birds, and we will look at one or two. But it is quite impossible to
talk about all of them, or we should still be talking when the keeper of
the Museum came to turn everyone out and shut up the building for the
night.

Look first at this pretty clump of grass, with a bramble trailing over
it and a bunch of primroses growing near. You would hardly have found
the nest, so well hidden, unless you had known it must be there. It is a
robin's, and the mother is bringing a caterpillar for her little
family. Which of the three gaping yellow mouths will get the delicious
morsel? Quite near is a wren's nest in some ivy, and so neatly is the
nest made of moss woven together that there is only one tiny little hole
left for the heads of the little wrens to peep out. The perky little
father, with his tail cocked up, stands near. He is very shy and
jealous, and so is his mate; if you put just th