BIRD LODGERS
How many sorts of bird nest in houses? 1 was asked this not long ago and pondered it myself. The commoner ones include starlings, sparrows, tits, swifts, swallows, martins, jackdaws. It is not so com- mon to have an owl in one's chimney, perhaps. Gulls that nest in buildings prefer church towers and old quarry structures. Jackdaws are supposed to favour ruins but are just as fond of warm chimneys. The list might be added to by those who have shared premises with wrens, blackbirds, thrushes, pigeons, robins and more unusual visitors. I cannot claim to have given shelter to anything but tits, sparrows and daws. There was a time when the hissing of young owls kept me awake, but that was long ago when I lived with my grandfather and the complaints of the birds were surely directed against our failure to sweep the chimney oftener. Every other chimney in the house had a once-a-year clean with a gorse bush drawn from the top of the stack to the hearth by means of a stone and a rope. The owls were preserved and protected birds, no matter who lost sleep in the adjoining bedrooms!
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