July 41 have two apologies to make and do not quite know how f begin: but, if T tell this story in my own way, perhaps i¢ will come right. On a hot and steamy morning T decided to stay in my own backyard: (this apology No. 1 to a lady who accuses me of referring to her- pretty little garden os backyard): and thus it was that I both heat Jand saw a most remarkable performance which, if I had not been in this bird business for avery long time, might well have led me to believe thad I had been observing a bird entirely new to this area. (That was apology No. 2 due to the partner of my occasional jo} and frequent? sorrows, who is now a: most cor int observer, and who recently told me that had seen "a new bird making an entirely' new noise"). So now for the point of this complicated story. Sitting In my own backyard (as abovementioned) 1, too, was suddenly assailed with the idea that I had discovered a new bird: it was about the size of a Blackbird and flew through the trees with a strange ery like that: but it few as T have never seen any other smallish bird fly..... with quivering "wings Uke a Kestrel... sudden darts like a humming bird...a queer slow-motion like nothing else that navigates with flapping wings: it appeared to be attacking the Magpies in their Poplar tree: colours are dimeult to see with the sun shining in your eyes, so it was not until this strange visitor landed in a Willow and gave an Oriole's call... that T realized It was our nest-
Ing Oriole behaving in this manner with the general idea of protecting its young. Never before have I seen, read or heard of such strange behaviour on the part of a well known bird... and if the lady who took me for R. or for P." (always the larier) thought she had discovered a new bird she was certainly justi. fled. T also hope the other lady will realize that T often refer to my garden as a backyard. PS, We who Wield that which is (said to be) mightier than the sword often pick up a packet of trouble. I'm off to Welhalwel (o-
July 5—Jusp before leaving for Wethalwet I have had the privilege of secing a nest of the little Fantail Warbler whose picture appears on the frontispiece of Shanghai Birds: my descriptions of the nest have, always been taken from hearsay....and I must now' say that any such descriptions, while being true enough, are quite inadequate. The nest is made" of living grass—emerald-green after a night of soaking rain—and. shows all the ingenuity of a Tailor-bird,, of which this litre Warbler fs in reality a first cousin: the grass in which the "nest is built isnot, more than twelve inches long: the living blades of 2 good strong tussock are gummed together with cobweb Ca form the walls of a or pocket): the tops of the blades are similarly drawn together and bent over to form penthouse roof (single slope): the bag Is Jett open at one side, towards the top (thus forming an Elliptical entrance): the inside, dry after a, rainy night, is lined with. the' soft silvery tops taken from the surrounding grass. To look into this beautiful home, with its front oer five inches above the ground level, you must lo fat on. your stomach in the' wet {Erass—feeling somewhat Ikea Brobdignagian peering into. the home of a Liliputian—apply tone eye to the little hole~and then seo. the tiny spotted eggs resting on their cushion of silky" grasvtops. T confess. that the whole experience rather shook me; T felt, if 1 may Say_s0, that I was interfering with' something Which id not belong to our gross world: Talrles, or something. of: that, Sort, may suggest? And then T began to think of certain birds which are rapidly losing their Identity Europe: the Corncrake. whose nest being destroyed each year by the arrival of rear new mechanical harvesters: farmers how take their grass three weeks earlier: the great "tanks" they use crush the nests of the {ilile land-crakes; It just cannot be helped. 'And. so T am Wondeting Just how long our Deautifus ilfle "Fen-tall' Warbler" in "China will survive this new order of things—rs.W
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.