92 RURAL BIRD LIFE. 



formed, in which the nest is built. The nest itself is 

 made of dry grass, a little moss, and lined with fibrous 

 roots and a i^\N horsehairs ; there is nothing very imposing 

 about it, and it is almost buried by the surrounding herb- 

 age It contains six eggs ; many nests only contain four or 

 five ; and at first sight you would almost be led to think 

 that the Hedge Accentor had been there and laid the 

 ^^^s> on which the mother Whinchat was sitting ; but if 

 you examine them closely, you will find they are dif- 

 ferent in form, being pointed at both ends, and then in 

 colouring matter they differ too, by having a ring of 

 light brown spots round the larger end, in some speci- 

 mens so pale as to be scarcely seen. Among the many 

 birds with which I have experimented in respect to 

 placing strange eggs in the nest, the Whinchat is the 

 only bird that expelled the foreign egg. It would be 

 interesting to know from this whether the Cuckoo ever 

 uses this bird's nest for her purpose. 



The young are seldom able to fly before the grass is 

 cut, and when the mowers are at work near their nests 

 the anxiety of the parent birds is great. Birds will get 

 used to every sound save that of the gun — it alone sends 

 terror through their ranks. Thus the Rooks will rear 

 their young in the midst of a crowded city ; the House 

 Sparrow amid the deafening roar of a railway station ; 

 or the Swallow and Martin close to the hum of human 

 toil. The Whinchat, too, is no exception. Though the 

 mowing-machine, with its clicking cog-wheels and deafen- 

 ing roar, passes within a few yards of them, they displav 

 no alarm whatever, and flit from stem to stem before it. 

 When the grass is all cut the W^hinchats become rather 

 more shy, and flit uneasily from swathe to swathe, in- 

 cessantly uttering their call notes, both when flying and 

 when at rest. They know full well that their deceptive 



