e tip of your finger on
the edge of a wren's nest the birds would desert at once, leaving the
wretched young ones to starve. The little brown bird in the next case is
the nightingale, who sings so sweetly; he is not much to look at, yet he
has a picturesque home, with meadow-sweet and wild roses growing over
it.

It is odd how many birds build on or near the ground, which you would
think was dangerous. The robin is particularly fond of this; it chooses
an overhanging bank if it can find one, and though the nest is well
hidden, there is nearly always a cat prowling near to seize the young
ones just when their first feathers are growing, so it seems wonderful
that robins ever escape at all. On the left side is the wood-wren, with
a nest just like a handful of hay flung down among some dead leaves.
Near here, too, are the house-martins, and further on the swallows and
other birds, who build under the projecting eaves of houses; of all the
nests, these look the most safe and cosy. The house-martin is a really
clever builder; he takes little mouthfuls of clay in his beak and sticks
them one by one under the deep overhanging tiles or slates of a house or
barn, and gradually forms a complete nest like a ball of clay, which
dries hard, and is stuck against the wall, with only one opening like a
lip at the top. The nest does not look comfortable, but it is, for
inside it is lined with the softest white feathers, whereon are laid the
pearly-white eggs. The sand-martin, the house-martin's cousin, prefers
the side of a cliff. He digs into a cliff or sandbank a long tunnel
quite as long as your arm, and just big enough for him to pop in and out
with comfort. At the very far end of this in the warm darkness he puts
bits of straw and feathers to make a bed, and here the young are
hatched. Until they grow older they never go down that long mysterious
tunnel where mother and father run in and out, but only see in the
distance the white gleam of a round hole. What a wonderful world it must
seem to the young bird when he first steps out! He is very timid, and as
he gets near the opening he hears the beating of the waves on the shore
perhaps, and then the great wide ocean opens before him and the
illimitable sky. What a big world! He must turn almost giddy with fright
and amazement.

Some birds choose furze-bushes to build in, which must be prickly and
uncomfortable, but are thick. Here there is a woodpecker family. The
woodpecker is a f