130 BIKDS' NESTS. 



that they so arrive on our shores, as I have very many times had the 

 first view of summer birds of different kinds in couples. 



The time at which the different kinds of birds begin the business 

 of building varies very much; I think the earliest of any is the Raven; 

 this bird often has been known to have young in February, which, allowing 

 for the time occupied in sitting, brings the actual building into January 

 itself; but these instances must be in mild seasons. All the Crow or 

 Pie kind are early builders, and use more or less the same kind of 

 material for their nest; this is usually some kind of dead stick, lining with 

 wool; Magpies alone of the Pie kind cover their nests entirely over, and 

 use a vast quantity of materials, amongst which much black-thorn twig is 

 usually found. The nesting of Rooks is too well known to need particular 

 description; the Jackdaws mingle with them, and generally form a part 

 of a Rookery; Magpies and Jays frequent woods, and build in the tops 

 of moderate trees. 



The eggs of all this family are more or less grey and freckled, except 

 the Jay, whose eggs are of a dull colour freckled with a dull pink. His 

 nest is also much closer than the other, and usually formed chiefly of 

 roots, and lined like the others with wool and soft materials. 



Among the first nesters we may reckon the Ouzel tribe; the Blackbird 

 usually having young early in April; and Thrushes are not far behind. JN T ow, 

 this genus differs exceedingly in the formation of the nest; for, whilst the 

 Blackbird uses a good deal of loose moss and sticks, cemented with black 

 mud and lined with dry grass, the Thrush has a much larger nest, lined, 

 and in fact composed almost entirely of rotten wood, which is so beauti- 

 fully moulded within, as to resemble a cocoa-nut shell, the outside being 

 kept together by green moss; whilst the Missel Thrush uses clay, lines 

 the same as the Blackbird, and uses white moss on the exterior: the two 

 first build in low trees or bushes, the last usually in high trees, though 

 sometimes very near the neighbourhood of man. The eggs of the Black- 

 bird are green speckled with brown; the Thrush the same colour but 

 brighter, spotted with black; and the Missel Thrush very light grey dotted 

 with red — a very remarkable discrepancy in birds of such analogous form 

 and habits. 



The nest of a bird bears no manner of proportion to its bulk, for it is 

 remarkable that the Wren, which is next to the smallest British species, 

 makes a nest much bigger than that of the Ringdove, which has fifty 

 times the bulk; whilst the Ostrich, the biggest of all, makes none, but 

 deposits its eggs on the bare ground. The Titmice, with one exception, 

 build in holes of the earth, of trees, or some building, the Great Parus 

 usually preferring a hollow tree or secure eave of a house. All these use 

 green moss, rabbits' fur, aud feathers, and lay a nest full of eggs, which 





