With nature and a camera; being the adventures and observations of a field naturalist and an animal photographer . , andmuch oftener uttered on the wing. I sometimesheard it within a few inches of my ear whilststanding perfectly still in a cleit for purposes ofobservation. I never once heard that familiar jar-ring note of alarm or anger so common in otherparts of the British Isles where Wrens are to bemet with. I examined five nests, two with eggs in, onelined with feathers ready to receive them, and twococks nests. Both the latter I found myself;and as I had very good reason to believe thatne
With nature and a camera; being the adventures and observations of a field naturalist and an animal photographer . , andmuch oftener uttered on the wing. I sometimesheard it within a few inches of my ear whilststanding perfectly still in a cleit for purposes ofobservation. I never once heard that familiar jar-ring note of alarm or anger so common in otherparts of the British Isles where Wrens are to bemet with. I examined five nests, two with eggs in, onelined with feathers ready to receive them, and twococks nests. Both the latter I found myself;and as I had very good reason to believe thatneither of them had been touched by human hands,I measured the aperture in each, and found it tobe one and five-eighth inches in horizontal diameter; 72 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA. whereas the hole in similar nests examined inEngland is generally not more than one and one-sixteenth. I did not take any measurements fromthe nests with eggs in, as they had been investi-gated by large rough fingers, which had, of course,destroyed the scientific value of anything in theway of horizontal diameter. The nests are larger,. ST KILDA WREN. constructed of rougher nuiterials, and not so neatlymade as those of mainland Wrens. The eggs, althougli subject to the usual amountof variation in point of size, run larger, as will beseen from the illustration on p. 70, which has beenprepared from a carefully-made photograph takenlife-size with the camera directly over them, forpurposes of comparison. My friend Mackenzie toldme that althougli he has examined quite fiftynests during the time he has visited the island inthe capacity of factor, he has never yet seen one YOUNG WBENS IX SO A. 73 cantaining- more than six eggs. I have foundnests in Yorkshire on more than one occasioncontaining seven and even eight. For purposes of comparison, we have also made aphotograph of a mainland fledgling AYren of about thesame age, and give the pictures herewith side by side. Curiously enough the Eider Duck, whose avera
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