136 THE NESTS AND EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



Niglitingalc is social for a short time after its arrival, 

 but as soon as the birds have paired they betake them- 

 selves to their respective liaunts, from which they jealously 

 drive intruders. The nest of this species is almost 

 invariably made on the ground ; although in Spain, 

 where the temperature is so much higher, it has been 

 found in hedges some five feet from the ground. The 

 old haunts, to a great extent, seem to be resorted to each 

 season. The nest is usually placed amongst the rank 

 herbage of the woods or plantations, amongst old, exposed 

 roots, on a bank, or in a hedge-bottom. Less frequently 

 it is made amongst ivy, a foot or so from the ground, or 

 amongst a drifted heap of dead leaves. The nest some- 

 what closely resembles that of the Robin, being a large 

 structure composed of dry grass or bits of the flat leaves 

 of rushes, moss, and quantities of dead leaves, usually 

 those of the oak, and lined with roots, fine grass, and a 

 little horsehair, more rarely with a scrap or two of vege- 

 table down intermixed. The Nightingale is a close sitter, 

 and is not demonstrative at the nest, slipping quietly off 

 into the nearest cover, and skulking until the disturbance 

 has passed. 



Range of egg colouration and measurement : 

 The eggs of the Nightingale are from four to six in 

 number, usually five, and vary from dark olive-brown 

 to bluish-green. There are two somewhat distinct types 

 of the eggs of this species. The olive-brown t\'pe is 

 bluish-green in ground colour, which is almost concealed 

 by the surface-marks of reddish-brown ; the bluish-green 

 type is only sparingly marked with reddish-brown, and 

 irequently has most of that colour congregated in a 

 circular patch at one or the other end of the cg^. Rarely 

 this patch of colour occurs at both ends. A few dark 

 lines are occasionally seen on the eggs. The two types 

 are produced by the greater or less amount of surface 



