2 BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



Situation and Locality. Bushes, hedges, ledges 

 of rock, holes in and on projecting " th roughs " of dry 

 walls, on banks, in evergreens, against the trunks 

 of trees, on beams in sheds and barns. I have 

 found several built quite on the ground, where a 

 partridge might have been expected to nest, al- 

 though there were thick old hedgerows not many 

 yards away. On one occasion I discovered a nest 

 inside a thrashing machine standing in an open 

 field, and another in a hole in a tree where 

 a starling would no doubt have bred had the 

 entrance hole been a trifle smaller. I have upon 

 more than one occasion seen a Blackbird's nest 

 built upon an old Thrush's, and vice versa, and 

 occupied nests of the two species touching each 

 other. Common nearly all over the United 

 Kingdom. I have met with it breeding in the 

 Outer Hebrides. 



Materials. Small twigs, roots, dry grass, moss, 

 intermixed with clay or mud. Sometimes bits of 

 wool, leaves, fern fronds, and even paper, lined 

 internally with fine dry grass. 



Eggs. Four or five, sometimes six. Some 

 authorities say as many as seven and eight ; but 

 I have never found a nest with more than six in, 

 although a friend upon whose word I can place 

 absolute reliance recently showed me a clutch 

 of eight, and the nest in which he had found them. 

 Of a dull bluish-green, spotted and blotched, and 

 rarely streaked with reddish-brown and grey. They 

 vary considerably, both in regard to ground-colour, 

 shape, size, and markings. Some varieties are 

 covered with small spots, others with such large 

 ones that they very closely resemble the eggs of 

 the Ring Ouzel, whilst a third variety is almost 



