25 MAY 1934, Page 19

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Nesting Zeal

By a 'cottage in the same county the bird-loving owner always reconditions the old nest for a fond pair of swallows, and three years ago, by helping the pair to clean and make up the nest, enabled them to bring up four families in the one season in the same nest ; and this must be a best in the records. Martins, I think, are rather fonder than swallows of reconditioning old nests, and will on occasion build or repair more nests than are necessary. I saw last year no fewer than three score odd of martins' nests on a farmhouse wall—some new, some reconditioned, a few past repair and one or two better nests unused. We have all seen cock wrens build a number of superfluous nests ; and indeed other birds, including wagtails and, of course, plover, do the same ; but the superfluous toil is usually the cock's, who leaves the final choice to the hen. Such house-building zeal, shared by a pair, is quite beyond my experience, and I share J. L. H.'s curiosity about the sequel.

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