232 Appendix. 



— Whimbrels, Golden Plovers, Guillemots, Ducks — strewed round 

 it. The egg is of a buffy red colour, mottled and speckled — very 

 thickly in places— with deeper red. 



<)'^- SNOWY OWL. 



Sufficiently often met with in North Britain (and even occurring 

 sometimes in England) to merit a short notice here. It inhabits 

 Sweden, Norway, Lapland, and the greater part of Northern Europe. 

 These birds are accustomed to take their prey by daylight, and seem, 

 from the accounts received, to be in the habit of " bolting " their 

 food, when not very large, whole. It makes its nest on the ground, 

 and lays in it three or four white eggs. 



3 ^ GREAT GREY SHRIKE. 



This bird is met with in Denmark and other northern countries of 

 Western Europe, and also in Russia, Germany, and France. It is 

 said to frequent woods and forests, and to build upon trees at some 

 distance from the ground, as well as in thick bushes and hedges. 

 The nest is made of roots, moss, wool, and dry stalks, lined with 

 dry grass and root-fibres. The eggs are four to seven in number, 

 and though they vary a good deal in colour, they always illustrate 

 the peculiar tendency of the eggs of the Shrikes to show a sort of 

 zone or girdle, due to the agglomeration of the spots about some 

 part of the circumference. They are yellowish or greyish white, 

 and the spots of grey and light brown. 



: ■ FIELDFARE. 



I have sometimes seen this favourite game-bird of the school-boy 

 here as early as the latter part of September, and I have frequently 

 noticed them feeding in hundreds on the holly berries which abound 



