156 PAPERS, ETC. 
a little inferior to that of the above mentioned spe- 
cies; the colour is a yellowish brown, mottled with 
darker brown, and size 8 lines long by 6 broad. 
23.—S. arundinacia. —Reed Warbler. 
The same unerring instinet which prompts these birds to 
build their nest among reeds, so supple as to be bowed 
to the water’s edge with every breath of wind, has 
also provided a resource against danger, by teaching 
them to form it so long and deep, that the precious 
cargo it contains rides as securely in the storm as in 
the calm ; this nest, suspended as it is from three or 
four reeds, and with its elegant cup-like shape, is, as 
may be imagined, a beautiful object ; fortunately 
for the bird, even love of beauty is not always sufhi- 
cient to induce the admirer to wade knee deep in mud 
and water for a sight of the object of his admiration. 
The eggs are greenish white, freckled and spotted 
with ash green and light brown, in length 9 lines by 
6% lines in breadth ; they breed early in June. 
PHILOMELA,. 
24.—Philomela luscinia.— Nightingale. 
The colour of the eggs in this species is olive green, 10 
lines in length, and 84 lines in breadth, with which 
information I hope all well disposed hearers will be 
content, and suffer the queen of songsters to rear her 
brood unmolested. 
CURRUCA. 
25.—Curruca atricapilla.— Blackcap. 
This is a splendid songster, second only to the Nightingale, 
but alas! the beauty of its eggs causes them to be 
found on every school boy’s string, trophies of bur- 
glary. They are 9 lines long, by 7 lines broad. In 
colour reddish white, spotted with dark brown. 
