BIRD-NESTING IN WOODS AND HEDGEROWS, 
a rugged cascade, worn in the bed of the river into a deep black 
pool, where a handsome trout may always be found. Here, in 
the days I speak of, a pair of Water-Ovzets had built their nest 
in the crevices of the crumbling rocks which overlooked the 
pool. The nest is bulky and arched, composed externally of 
various species of moss, firmly matted together with mud, not 
unlike the swallow’s nest, with an aperture in front, of oblong 
form, three inches and a half wide by one and a half hich. 
Within this is contained the nest itself, a hemispherical mass of 
soft grass-moss and water-plants, lmed with leaves of trees. 
The eggs (fig. 27) are five or six in number, of an oval form, 
and rather pointed, about an inch in length and three-quarters 
of an inch at their thickest end, and of a cream-coloured white. 
When these little birds have attached themselves to a locality, 
they are known to return to it for many years in succession, 
and the pair in question had built here for several years. 
This plantation is so favourably situated in all respects, that 
every songster of the grove may be found init. And here, in 
this high. copse, we have a Jay’s nest, occupying the lower 
branches of a young oak. It is formed of sticks, lined with 
fibrous roots, on which it deposits five or six eggs, broadly 
oval (fig. 23), of a pale bluish-green or grey colour, obscurely 
marked with a darker shade of yellowish brown and pale 
purple, but varying much in colour. The jay is an object of 
dread to some of the smaller birds; for, although not exactly a 
bird of prey, opportunity offering, it does not hesitate to attack 
them, and they shun its neighbourhood accordingly. Mr. 
Durham Weir, a close observer, whose MS. notes are now 
before us, “trapped one in January, 1837, which he placed 
with some other birds in his tool-house; but was astonished to 
find two of them destroyed in the morning. He soon had 
proof against their destroyer. A linnet alighting on a branch 
of a tree on which the jay was sitting, he caught it by the 
throat with his bill and killed it in a few mmutes. Half an 
hour after, the jay seized upon a green linnet in the same 
manner, plucked off the feathers, and devoured it bit by bit, all 
except the head.” 
The MisseL-THRUsH has, however, no fears of this showy 
bird, but builds his nest where he lists, in the forked branch of 
some low branch of a tree, generally at some inconsiderable 
height,—the nest, a bulky mass some six inches and a half 
externally, and three inches and a halfinternally. The external 
walls are composed of twigs, straws, and grasses, intermixed 
x 2 307 


