186 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



brown one, and a bluish-green one. The ground-colour of the 

 olive-brown type of egg is bluish-green, where it can be seen 

 through the surface-colouring, which is pale reddish-brown. The 

 bluish-green type is very faintly mottled with pale reddish-brown, 

 the colouring-matter being sometimes collected on one end of the 

 egg, like a cap. In some specimens this cap is to be seen on each 

 end, the egg becoming paler round the centre. Some eggs are 

 finely streaked here and there with darker brown. In size they 

 vary from 0'93 to 075 inch in length, and from 0'65 to 0'57 inch 

 in breadth. 



THE HOCK THEUSH. 

 (Monticola saxatilis.) 



Plate 51, Fig. 4. 



The occurrence of the Kock Thrush in England is only acci- 

 dental, only one specimen being admitted to be genuine. The 

 Rock Thrush breeds across Southern Europe as far north as the 

 Hartz Mountains, and eastward through Persia, Turkestan, and 

 South Siberia, as far as Lake Baikal, South-east Mongolia, and 

 North China. It passes through North Africa on migration, where 

 some remain to breed, and winters in Senegambia, Abyssinia, and 

 East Africa. 



Wherever the nest is found, it is usually well concealed from 

 view, and always in a hole. Nests in the more cultivated districts 

 are made of roots, fine and coarse grasses, moss and bents, and 

 lined with hair and feathers. Those taken from more isolated 

 places, the rocky districts high up mountain sides, are similar in 

 outward construction, rarely lined with hair or feathers, but with 

 fine rootlets and dry grass. 



The eggs of the liock Thrush are four or five in number, of the 

 same beautiful bluish-green as those of the Song Thrush, but 

 slightly paler and rounder ; indeed they are almost intermediate 

 between a Song Thrush's and a Starling's. The markings are 

 confined to a very few faint light brown specks, usually on the 

 larger end ; but the eggs are very often spotless. Even in the 

 same clutch these peculiarities may be noticed ; for sometimes 

 one egg will be faintly marked, and the rest spotless. They vary 

 in length from T05 to 0"95 inch, and in breadth from 0'82 to 

 0'7 inch. 



