Winter Nests ?
In two neighbouring gardens both thrushes and sparrows have been seen carrying straws, as if intent on building, and we have all noticed how very full and constant have been the songs of thrushes. Whether the birds ate really building nests is not certain. Every year people report that sparrows have been seen carrying nesting material during mid winter; but such straws do not necessaril, show which way the wind blows. The sparrow, especially, I think, the cock sparrow, is extremely fond of pulling straws out of a stack and hauling them to a certain distance, but he conveys them to a table not a nesting site. His object is to inspect the ear and see if per- chance a grain is left among the husks. The earliest nest in my own records is a robin's with one egg found in an ivied wall on January 3Ist.
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