20 JULY 1944, Page 18

The Coal - man's Friend Here is a little incident that illustrates

the English fondness birds as well as the birds' appreciation. A pied wagtail built her on the top of a high stack of coal in a station yard. After she laid her eggs, the coal had to be removed ; but the coal-man fi a sack with coal and placed the nest on the top, thereafter for a roof and walls with large blocks of coal. The birds discovered new site at once and have now hatched out the eggs and are fee the young. How greatly the species vary! You may touch photograph one nest and cause the bird to desert—as with the li and, in my experience, the shrike—and do what you will with oth In one case a retriever—which had taken to bird-nesting—rem a thrush's nest bodily and carried it to his master. He replaced nearby and the birds continued as if nothing whatever happened.