PLANTS ABOUT KIRTLINGTON. 239 



side measure, where it is widest, and the cavity but three 

 inches in diameter. The outside is strengthened with a few 

 slender twigs of fir, then a layer of coarse dry grass, lined 

 with finer grass and a few long hairs. It is lodged close to 

 the central stem of a Scotch fir, about thirty inches below its 

 highest point, at the base of the shoots of the year 1837 ; here 

 the nest is supported underneath by five or six ascending la- 

 teral branches of the fir, which so entirely conceal it, that it 

 can scarcely have been perceptible from the ground, and the 

 occasional visits of the parent birds probably betrayed their 

 retreat. 



The eggs measure seven eighths of an inch in length and 

 breadth, the colour white, slightly tinged with pale skim-milk 

 blue, and sparingly speckled with red, which is of a darker 

 shade on one egg than on the other ; the character of the egg 

 like that of the greenfinch, but larger, with the smaller por- 

 tion of red colour not confined to the larger end. 



The young bird appears to be about three weeks old, and 

 measures four inches and a half in length, the wing from the 

 carpal joint to the end only two inches and a half long, the 

 base of each primary being covered with its membranous 

 sheath, or only as yet what is commonly termed pen-feather- 

 ed. Both mandibles of the beak straight, the under mandi- 

 ble shutting within the upper; the plumage of the head, back, 

 rump, and all the under surface of the body greyish white, 

 tinged with yellow, and streaked longitudinally with dusky 

 brown ; the feathers of the wings and tail dark brown, edged 

 and tipped with pale wood brown. Legs and toes flesh colour # 



Yours very truly, 



Wm. Yarrell. 



Editor of the 'Magazine of Natural History. 1 



Art. VIII. — List of a few Rare or Interesting Plants noticed in the 



neighbourhood of Kirtlington, Oxfordshire. By W. Wilson 



Saunders, Esq., F.L.S., &c. 



Local lists of plants, however small, often prove interesting 

 to the practical botanist, and with this idea I have drawn up 

 the following, which pretends to nothing more than pointing 

 out the localities of a few rare or interesting plants which I 

 met with last summer in the neighbourhood of Kirtlington. 

 The country about Kirtlington is gently undulating in its out- 

 line, and free from wood, except near the parks of Sir George 

 Dashwood and — Annesley Esq. The river Cherwell bounds 



