460 MECISTURA LONGICAUDATA. 



" On Thursday forenoon, between ten and eleven o'clock, the 

 outside of the nest having been, after much labour, completed, 

 they commenced lining it with a great variety of feathers, 

 some of which were of considerable size. With almost every 

 kind of bird that came near their residence, even although 

 some were three or four times larger than themselves, they 

 fought most courageously, and did not desist from tormenting 

 them until they drove them away. When engaged in contest, 

 they uttered a harsh kind of chirp. It is asserted by Mr 

 Selby ' that a small hole is left on two opposite sides of the 

 nest, not only for ingress and egress, but also to prevent 

 the bird, during incubation, from being incommoded by its 

 long tail, which then projects through one of the orifices.'' 

 If this be the form in which it is built in England, it is not 

 so in this neighbourhood, for in all the nests which I have 

 discovered, there was only one very small hole. When the 

 female is sitting upon eggs, the male usually resides with her 

 during the night. In this situation I have caught them after 

 sunset, about the beginning of May. How they keep their 

 tails from being injured is truly astonishing. 



" On Wednesday afternoon the 1st of May, they finished 

 their snug and comfortable dwelling, after having been for 

 twelve days constantly and arduously engaged in its construc- 

 tion. All the sides and bottom of the interior were thickly 

 lined with a great variety of feathers. Of all our British nests 

 this is the most elegantly and artfully constructed. On Thurs- 

 day morning, the 2d, the female laid her first egg. There are 

 ten eggs in it to-day." 



The eggs, usually about twelve, are smaller than those of 

 any other British bird except the Kinglet, of a regular oval 

 form, blunt at the smaller end, from six to seven twelfths 

 long, and about five twelfths broad, white, generally marked 

 with numerous faint red dots at the larger end. 



This species is generally distributed in England, and is very 

 abundant in many parts of the south of Scotland, but also occurs 

 as far north as the county of Ross. In all parts it is a per- 

 manent resident. 



Young. — The young when fledged have all the lower parts, 



