BRITISH BIRDS' KESTS. 257 



"light" and "dark," wliicli interbreed freel}^ The 

 dark variety is more common in low latitudes, and 

 the light one in high latitudes, as might be expected. 



Mr. Seebohm, in describing the bird, says: — "In 

 the adult of the dark form, the whole of the plumage 

 is an almost uniform dark sooty brown, slightly 

 suffused with slate-grey on the upper-parts, and with 

 a bronzy yellow on the sides of the neck. 



" In the adult of the light form, the slate-grey 

 of the upper-parts is a little more pronounced than 

 in the dark form. The general colour of the under- 

 parts is white, shaded with brown on the sides 

 of the breast, the vent, and the under tail-coverts ; 

 the white on the throat extends round the sides 

 of the neck and across the lower ear-coverts, almost 

 to the nape, and is suffused with yellow. Legs and 

 feet black." 



The female is, so far as is known, indistinguishable 

 from the male, except that the elongated feathers 

 of the tail are somewhat shorter. 



Hitnatiou and Locdiit//. — On the ground, amongst 

 heather, moss, and coarse grass, in the moorland 

 parts of the Orkneys, Shetlands, Hebrides, and in 

 one or two places on the extreme northern mainland 

 of Scotland. Our illustration is from a plioto- 

 gra|)h taken in the outer Hebrides. 



Materials. — Dried grass and moss, used as a 

 scanty lining to the hollow in which the eggs are 

 laid ; sometimes none used at all. 



Eggs. — Two ; as many as three have been found, 

 and, upon occasions only one. Varying in ground 

 colour from dark olive-green to brownish-green, 

 irregularly spotted and blotched with differing shades 

 of dark brown and greyish-brown, generally dis- 

 tributed over the entire surface of the egg, but 

 sometimes most numerous at the larger end. They 



