
BIRD-NESTING IN FIELDS AND COMMONS. 
village green we find, occasionally, a venerable clump of trees 3 
sometimes a great extent of wall or paling incloses some:richly- 
wooded domain, where the trees skirt the highway; or, in 
default of better accommodation, there is a tall hawthorn hedge. 
On each and ali of these, in many parts of England between 
the Trent valley and the south coast, the NicutineGatE may be 
heard, night and morning, pouring forth its joyous song from 
the lower branches. Beyond these limits, the appearance of the 
nightingale, if not denied, is, at least, rare; for, although it 
has been frequently heard as far north as York, and, in very mild 
summers, even in Mid-Lothian, as a rule these are its limits. 
When the nest is sought for, keen eyes must be made use 
of, as the bird displays great sagacity in its concealment, 
choosing the root of the thickest and most impenetrable hedge 
for building and placing it, besides which it is completely 
surrounded by a clump of leaves and bushes similar in colour 
to those of which it is formed. The foundation of the nest 
is usually loose grass, rushes, or dry leaves; the walls of the 
nest, which is large, and loosely put together externally, are a 
thick matting of leaves of the neighbouring trees, lined with a 
thin covering of fine grass, and, in many respects, resembling 
the nest of the robm. MHere the nightingale lays its five or 
six broadish ovate eggs (fig. 9), three-fourths of an inch in 
length and seven-twelfths in diameter. They are generally 
of a brown uniform colour, but occasionally slightly mottled 
all over with reddish-brown spots. 
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