5S BRITISH BIRDS, THEIR EGGS AND NESTS. 
when its voice may not be heard about its accustomed haunts 
namely, willow and reed beds, and particularly the latter. The 
nest is, perhaps, the deepest made by any English bird, and 
quite a long inverted cone in shape. It is affixed to, or rather 
builf so as to include three or four reeds, or more. So that, 
‘however the wind blows, it is quite fast, while its great depth 
prevents the eggs falling out, even if the reeds be blown almost 
level. The bird has been seen still sitting when the violent 
gusts forced the nest down almost to the water level. The nest 
is made of long grass and the seed-stalks of the reed, and lined 
with wool or the like. Four or five eggs of a greenish-white 
colour, marked in spots and dashes of green and pale brown, 
are usually laid —Fig. 4, plate III. 
59. NIGHTINGALE.—(Piilomela luscinia). 
This sweetest of the English warblers has but a limited range 
In Essex, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, I used to hear it abun- 
dantly ; but of late years, as a resident in Yorkshire, its note 
has become strange in my ears. Shy and vigilant in its habits, 
it does not willingly expose itself to observation, and its haunts 
are so thick that discovery of its nest is not always easy. It 
seems often an untidy structure, but according to my observation 
not usually built on the ground, as Mr. Yarrell states. I have 
found it in a thick thorn hedge or bush, and in shrubs in the 
garden; made of twigs, straw, grass, and especially old oak 
leaves, and with only a jagged margin. The eggs, four and 
sometimes five of them, are of “an uniform olive-brown colour,” 
and from the time they are laid, the bird only sings occasionally. 
After they are hatched, never.—F%g. 5, plate III. 
60. BLACKCAP.—(Curruca atricapilla). 
Blackcap Warbler.—This bird, with several others, has a loca 
