30 BIKDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



place. The nest is very well concealed, but there has 

 been great exaggeration as to the difficulty of finding it, 

 and I only know of one instance when even long and 

 continued searching failed to discover its position. In 

 my experience, the tortuous passage (we read of) through 

 thick grass is a myth, and the bird also leaves its nest 

 quite as often by a low flight as b}^ slipping over the 

 edge and creeping away in mouse fashion. The nest is 

 composed entirely of rough grass, without any difference 

 of texture between the out- and the in-side, and is gene- 

 rally hidden deep amongst the tall grass, or in a tuft in 

 the middle of a low blackberry-bush. A pair have for 

 several years nested within twenty yards of my garden, 

 and on one occasion I was enabled to crawl within two 

 feet of where a bird was trilling. It was singing about 

 the middle of a four feet hedge, worming about among 

 the branches, and occasionally changing its position 

 slightly. This movement, and the continuous character 

 of the note, with an occasional echo, are no doubt the 

 causes of an apparent ventriloquial power, with which it 

 has sometimes been credited : quite wrongfully, in my 

 opinion, for where there is no echo, the position of the 

 bird may always be accurately found, and at once. The 

 note varies very much in depth, and is uttered in fine 

 weather usually from about 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., almost con- 

 tinuously and with only the slightest break. This 

 species rarely sings in the day-time, and either the male 

 assists in incubation, or the female also has the power 

 of trilling, as I have heard a bird utter the note imme- 

 diately after leaving the nest. During execution, the 

 beak is held wide open, and the mandibles motionless, 

 but the tongue appears to quiver. A full nest contains 

 six eggs, and these are laid during the month of May, 

 oftenest about the 15th, though I have seen young, a 



