airly big bird, and he has a beautiful crimson streak
on his head; with his strong bill he carves out a deep hole in a tree,
right into the trunk--it is wonderful that the bird should have the
strength and patience to cut into the solid wood--and when he has made a
deep hole, he begins to make it bend down, and in the dip he makes his
nest. The young woodpeckers are therefore shut in very tightly and
safely. The parent birds run up and down the trees seeking for insects,
on which they live. To see them run straight up a tree as a cat would do
is very curious; but they are shy birds, and not often seen.

Other birds, like the reed-warbler, build in reeds; this seems a very
safe plan. Here you see several tall green reeds growing out of the
water, and about a foot above the water the bird has made a clever nest,
twisting bits of roots and grass together, and lacing them in with the
reeds, which are strong enough to hold such a dainty thing. So the
little nest swings and sways with the wind over the water, and the
reed-warbler is safe from cats, at all events; but one imagines the
young birds must sometimes tumble out and get drowned before they can
fly.

A very odd bird is quite near this, and that is the butcher bird. He
really is a butcher--that is to say, he kills tiny animals and even
other little birds, and keeps them in a larder for use. For this purpose
he chooses a bush with thorns, perhaps a hawthorn, and then when he
catches any small creature he sticks it on the thorns and leaves it
there spiked until it is wanted. Look at this one's larder. He has a
wretched little dead sparrow hanging by its neck from a big thorn, and
two or three bumble-bees spiked too. We can imagine the mamma saying to
the little ones: 'No, dears, you mustn't have any sparrow to-night just
before you go to bed; it would give you indigestion and make you dream.
Papa will have some of that for his supper, but if you'll be good
children I'll give you each a bit of bumble-bee.' The mother bird is
talking to a young one who has got out of its nest. They are fat, strong
little birds, as they should be with such food.

After this we come to bigger birds--ducks and puffins. Puffins have
beaks like poll parrots, and are about the size of a rook; they have
neat white shirt-fronts, and their beaks are red and yellow and blue,
but they have silly faces, as if they thought of nothing but their own
fine clothes. They live near water on cliffs, and som