You will I trust excuse inaccuracy, redundancy, &c., in this long scrawl. The fact is, I had a good deal to write about, and had not sufficient time (and I fear I am gradually losing the power) to write it in a shorter letter.
I am, Sir, very faithfully,
To Herbert Millington, Esq.,
K.E.S. School, Bromsgrove.
It is perhaps not known by everybody here how many interesting objects of Natural History there are to be found round Bromsgrove.
Let us confine ourselves to the birds. There is no lack of variety, for we have the red-backed shrike, the green woodpecker, the golden-crested regulus, the black redstart, and the long-tailed titmouse, the "short-tailed" kingfisher, the "long-legged" heron, and we must not leave out the chiff-chaff and the brambling finch. I will try and show where anyone who wishes to watch these birds should look for them. The red-backed shrike, or butcher bird, as it is commonly called, has its home near Grafton Manor. It builds its nest fairly high up in a thorn hedge and is easy to find, as the old birds fly about and utter a shrill grating noise when anyone comes near. It lays four or five eggs of a light yellowish colour with a ring of darker spots round the larger end. The green woodpecker's nest, on the other hand, is not half so easily discovered, being built deep down in the trunk of a tree. Perhaps "nest" is not the right word, for it does not build one, but lays its five to seven eggs on a layer of decayed wood at the bottom of the hole. This bird, although the commonest variety of all our British woodpeckers, is by no means the least handsome. The eggs are of a pure white. The golden-crested regulus builds an exquisite little nest, which it sometimes suspends under the branch of a tree, but which may often be found in other places. It is made of grass and wood, lined inside with feathers. The egg is very small and something like a diminutive
