Mr. R. M. Christy, Natural History Notes. 69
some distance away. Next morning I again visited the
nest before six o'clock, and found all the young ones quite
dead. The result surprised me considerably; it seemed
to be a failure altogether of the bird's sense—a case
of complete mistake. The bird built her nest in a place
from which she had no power, or at least made no
attempt, to remove her young to the water, and all died in
consequence.
R. M. C.
Saffron Walden, May 24th, 1880.
III.
(Read June 26th, 1880.)
I send herewith, for exhibition at the next meeting, a
curious object, which Mr. Travis gave me a week or
more ago. A lump of mud, such as it is, does not in a
usual way carry much interest along with it; but I venture
to think that this case will prove an exception. This
strange lump of mud is the work of a Nuthatch (Sitta
caesia), and had it been used to partly close the mouth of
the bird's nesting-hole, there would have been nothing
unusual about it; but its history is different. It was found
a year or two ago in Audley End Park, close to a place
where I now know of a nuthatch's nest in which young
are being reared. When found it occupied the centre
of an old thrush's nest placed out on one of the
branches of a large yew tree. The thrush's nest has been
now removed, but its lining of rotten wood, &c., still
remains adhering to the mud, which, it will be seen, is
harder than many a brick, and I notice a specimen of
Clausilia rugosa sticking in it.
The question arises, What could have induced the birds
to fill the old thrush's nest with this earthy structure? It
could not have been for nesting purposes ; for although the
hole in the centre is quite as large as that left by nut-
hatches in any nest I have seen, yet in the position it was