216 BIRD LIFE IN WILD WALES 



work of a Carrion Crow, though possibly the bird 

 may have removed it, as she thinks, to safer quarters. 

 In a thick bramble I found a Linnet's nest with four 

 eggs — a second brood no doubt. The young Cuckoo 

 is progressing well, and has grown wonderfully. 



June \'6th. — On a fern-covered, sloping hill flushed 

 a pair of Nightjars, close together. For about a week 

 before the eggs are laid these birds may be found 

 squatting close together on the ground ; in fact, almost 

 touching one another. 



Although the Nightjar has a remarkably tender 

 skin — let any one try to skin one and he will soon 

 prove it — -its eggs are distinctly thick shelled con- 

 sidering their size. On the other hand, birds like 

 Ravens, Crows, and the crow tribe generally, which 

 have tough skins, lay very delicately shelled eggs. 

 Of course many sorts of eggs that are laid on the 

 bare soil or rock are thick shelled, but the rule is not 

 invariable, as take the Ringed and Kentish Plovers 

 and Lesser Tern, which all lay thin-shelled eggs on 

 the rough shingle. 



Crossing the line on my way back, whilst getting 

 through some wires bordering the metals, I flushed a 

 Shrike from her nest containing half a dozen eggs of 

 the green type. This nest was barely two feet from 

 the ground, in a rose-bush. Six eggs seems to be a 

 very usual clutch with the Shrike, and the Tree Pipit, 

 too, is very fond of the half-dozen. 



June \gih. — Put in an hour or two in the vicinity of 

 the quarries hunting for Nightjars. The only find, 

 however, was a Blackbird's nest with five eggs. Made 

 for a nest which had been reported to me as a Les.ser 



